TREES GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. 119 



thin and not evergreen. The tree is rather tall and slender 

 and occasionally reaches a height of forty feet. Again it 

 occurs as a shrub. In May we shall find it in bloom. By 

 many it is well known and sought for in the damp woods of 

 the Catskill Mountains. It extends southward along the 

 mountains to Pennsylvania and to Alabama. 



THREE-FLOWERED THORN. {Plate L V.) 



Crataegus tri flora. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Apple. Spreading /rem base. xi-vo/eet. Georgia and Alabama. April. 



Bark of branches ; light greenish grey and close, becoming scaly. Spines : 

 dark red; branched; numerous on the main stem. Leaves: simple; alternate; 

 growing at the ends of the twigs; ovate ; pointed at the apex and rounded at 

 the base or tapering into a margin which extends along each side of the short 

 petiole ; irregularly or doubly serrate ; bright dark green above and pubescent 

 when young, later becoming rough ; paler below and pubescent. Flowers : 

 large ; growing in corymbs of mostly three flowers on pubescent petioles, the 

 lateral ones, the longest. Calyx : with five lanceolate fringed lobes. Corolla: 

 with five rosaceous white petals. Stamens: numerous. Fruit: globose; 

 brilliant orange or red. 



Crataegus triflora is a rare tree : one quite imbued with the 

 idea of seclusion. At the present time it is only known to 

 occur at two stations ; along the cliffs of the Coosa River in 

 Georgia and near Birmingham, Alabama. Mr. Beadle, of Bilt- 

 more, who has made an exhaustive study of the genus, has seen 

 it in bloom at the former place where, he says, there are about 

 fifty of the trees ; and he describes the effect they en masse 

 produce, when they unfold amid the russet tints of early 

 spring, as very lovely. " Individually," he says, " the shrub is 

 rather poor." At the top its branches divide many times and 

 the leaves appear to be thrust at the ends of the twigs so as to 

 form a covering for their nakedness. The particular charm of 

 its flowers is that they are large, and the two side ones seem 

 to have been quaintly prolonged so as to give a sort of pro- 

 tection to the one in the middle. From the coloured plate 

 this feature and the brilliancy of the fruit can be seen. 



It was through the aid of a glance into the note book of Mr. 



