86. CRAT^EGUS COCCINEA SCARLET THORN AND RED HAW. 27 



A low wide-spreading tree, rarely over 20 ft. (6 m.) in height, but 

 spreading considerably more than its height, with dense rounded top of 

 long horizontal and drooping branches. The trunk which is commonly 

 only 4-6 ft. in length and rarely over 12 in. (0.30 m.) in diameter, is 

 clothed in an ash-gray bark fissured longitudinally into narrow scaly 

 ridges. Its long slender thorns form a conspicuous feature, and it 

 commonly retains a part of its fruit late into the winter. 



HABITAT. Canada from the valley of the St. Lawrence westward to 

 Manitoba and southward to the Gulf States. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, very close-grained and of 

 medium strength, with reddish brown heart-wood and abundant brown- 

 ish white sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.7194; Percentage of Ash, 0.56; 

 Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.7154; Coefficient of Elasticity, 

 66436; Modulus of Rupture, 653; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 

 430; Resistance to Indentation, 210; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 

 44.83. 



USES. This is the most valuable of our native Thorns for ornamen- 

 tal purposes, its shining dark green leaves and peculiar spreading habit 

 of growth giving it considerable value. It is also occasionally set for 

 hedges for which it is well suited. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. None are claimed of this species. 



86. CRAT^EGUS COCCINEA, L. 

 SCARLET THORN, WHITE THORN, RED HAW. 



Ger., ScJiarlachfrilclitiger Weissdorn; Fr., Neflier ecarlate; Sp., Espino 



Colorado. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves round-ovate, incisely serrate and sometimes cut 

 into 5-9 shallow lobes, with acute irregular glandular teeth, truncate or rounded (on 

 vigorous shoots even heart-shaped) at base, thin and membranous, puberulent or 

 sometimes pubescent especially beneath, or sometimes glabrous, 3-3 in. long, on long 

 slender petioles ; stipules usually linear, glandular-serrate and caducous ; thorns 

 brown or grayish, curved, sharp and averaging about 2 in. in length. Flowers appear 

 when the leaves are fully expanded in usually about 12-flowered glabrous of pube- 

 scent glandular lateral corymbs, with caducous bracts and bractlets; calyx with long 

 lanceolate and usually glandular-toothed lobes : petals white ; pistils 2-5 with pale 

 hairs at base. Fruit ripe in early autumn, subglobose or sometimes slightly elongated, 

 coral red, about \ in. in diameter with thin flesh and thick-shelled nutlets with 2 

 grooves on the back and acute at the ends. 



(Cocdnea is the Latin for scarlet, referring to the color of the fruit.) 



This is probably our largest Thorn, sometimes 30 ft. (9 m.) in hight 

 and 18 in. (0.45 m.) in diameter of trunk; of wide-spreading habit of 

 growth (but still more upright than the C. punctata or Crus-galli), with 

 handsome foliage and ash gray bark of trunk, fissured into narrow 

 longitudinal scaly ridges. 



