Crataegus 1737 



Fruit woolly pubescent. This variety is rare ; but is occasionally found in the 

 wild state, as in the Isle of Wight, where it is recorded by Bromfield. 1 It is 

 said 2 to occur near Breslau, in Silesia. 



13. Var. maurianensis, Didier, in Bull. Soc. Dauph. ix. 385 (1882). 



Fruits very large, \ to 1 in. long, and { in. or more wide. This variety was 

 described from specimens found in Savoy, and occurs also in hedges near Toulon. 8 



Mr. J. W. White records 4 two trees, with branches bending down under the 

 weight of numerous large haws, which were found in 1909 near Bristol, one on a 

 low cliff near Walton-by-Clevedon, the other in Chelvey Batch wood. The fruits 

 were very handsome, and four times larger than the typical form, averaging % in. 

 long and \ in. wide. 



As both C. monogyna and C. oxyacantha have been much confused, it is 

 impossible to give an accurate account of their separate distribution. The common 

 hawthorn, comprising both species, is a native of Europe, and of the mountains of 

 Algeria and Morocco ; and extends from Asia Minor and the Caucasus, through 

 Armenia, Persia, and Afghanistan to the western Himalayas, where it grows between 

 6000 and 9000 feet elevation. 5 It grows wild in Norway as far north as lat. 62 55', 

 in Sweden as far as Upsala, lat. 59 52', and in Finland to lat. 61 30'. In Russia, it 

 is common in Livland, Kazan, and Orenburg, and throughout the southern provinces 

 except in the Steppes. It occurs mainly in hedges, waste places, and on the margins 

 of woods, ascending in the Alps to about 3000 feet altitude. 



C. monogyna is by far the commoner of the two species in Britain, where it 

 is found in hedges and woods from Moray and Islay southwards ; and it is met with 

 in all districts in Ireland. It is the most commonly planted hawthorn either for 

 hedges or for ornament ; and most of the large trees in parks are referable to this 

 species, though some of them look as if of hybrid origin. 



The hawthorn lives to a great age, probably to three or four hundred years. 6 

 Old trees often grow irregularly, so that ribs are formed upon their stem, which 

 assume a vertical or a spiral direction. As years go on, these rib-like projections 

 become larger, and the intervening channels deeper. Ultimately, when decay 

 begins at the heart and spreads outwards, the projecting parts become separated 

 and appear to be a number of subordinate stems, which are, however, united at the 

 base, and bear on their inner surface, instead of bark, remains of the decayed heart- 

 wood. 7 (A. H.) 



1 In Phylologist, iii. 288 (1848). 



2 Ascherson and Graebner, Syn. Mitteleurop. Flora, vi. pt. ii. 30 (1906). 



3 Described as var. macrocarpa, Reynier, ex Albert and Jahandiez, Plantes Vase, du Var, 185 (1 908). 



4 Flora of Bristol, 300 (1912), where these two trees are assigned to var. splendens, Druce, a name which cannot be 

 retained, as var. splendens, Koch, Dendrologie, i. 159 (1869), much earlier in date, was applied to forms with pink and scarlet 

 flowers. Mr. White identifies this large-fruited variety with Cxyacanihus folio et fructu majore from Oxfordshire of Merrett's 

 Pinax (1667). Ray, Syn. 454 (1724), states that it was also found by Sherard in Northamptonshire. 



6 The forms in southern Europe, northern Africa, and Asia, are apparently very distinct varieties or allied species ; and 

 require further study. Cf. Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 782 (1906). 



6 Lees, in Gard. Chron. iii. 688 (1875), states that he counted over 300 annual rings in the stem of a tree about 1 ft. in 

 diameter, that grew on the Malvern Hills. 



Cf. Purchas, mjourn. of Bot. iii. 366 (1865), who points out that stems growing close together, which have commenced 

 as independent trees in a hedge, are surrounded on all sides by bark, and are thus readily distinguishable from the peculiar 

 stems described above. Lees, in Gard. Chron. iii. 688, figs. 142, 143 (1875), gives illustrations of trees with divided stems 

 at Gamstone, Herefordshire, and at Upper Wyck, near Worcester. 



