466 



The Thorn Trees 



tree from 6 to 8 meters high, with spreading branches forming a flat-topped head ; 



the bark is dark gray, scaly; the young twigs 

 are reddish, long-hairy, becoming gray and 

 smooth, and armed with stout brown spines 

 from 3 to 7 cm. long; the trunks are often 

 provided with numerous, much-branched 

 spines, from 15 to 20 cm. long. 



The leaves are obovate-oblong or oval, 

 from 2 to 6 cm. long and from 1.5 to 5 cm. 

 wide, pointed at both ends, doubly toothed 

 above, the young leaves slightly hairy above, 

 paler beneath, with several pairs of oblique 

 veins, becoming smooth above, yellow-green, 

 half leathery; leaf-stalks about i cm. long. 

 The flowers are about 15 mm. wide, in many- 

 flowered, long-hairy corymbs; calyx-tube hairy, the lobes lanceolate, hairy outside, 

 nearly smooth within, toothed with gland-tipped teeth; stamens about 20; anthers 

 large, yellow; styles 3 to 5. The fruit, ripening in September, is globose, dull red, 

 9 to 12 mm. thick; the flesh is yellow, dry and mealy; it contains 3 to 5 nutlets, from 

 5 to 6.5 mm, long, the backs ridged, the nest of nutlets 6 to 8 mm. thick. 



Fig. 417. Chapman's Hill Thorn, 

 slightly hair)', sometimes winged 



28. THIN-LEAVED THORN Crataegus tenuifolia Britton 

 CratcEgus Holmesiana Ashe, not Cratcegus Holmesii Lesquereux 



Cratccgiis villipes Ashe 



This thorn occurs on rich, moist hillsides, from the vicinity of Montreal south- 

 ward through western New England to the Appalachian foothills of southern 

 Virginia, and westward through south- 

 em Ontario to northern IlHnois. It is 

 a tree sometimes 9 meters high, with 

 strongly ascending branches, forming 

 a long rounded crown ; the bark is pale 

 gray-brown, scaly; the twigs are red- 

 dish brown, smooth, and bear a few 

 chestnut-brown spines 4 to 6 cm. long. 



The leaves are elHptic-ovate, 2.5 to 

 9 cm. long, 2 to 6 cm. wide, pointed or 

 long-pointed at the apex, wedge-shaped 

 at the base, doubly toothed with sharp 

 teeth, the 4 to 6 pairs of lobes with _ . , _, 



, . , ^ _ Fig. 418. Thin-leaved Thorn. 



long-pomted, sometimes flarmg tips, 



bronze-red when young, short-hairy above, becoming rough, yellow-green, paler 



and slightly hairy along the veins beneath, thin; leaf-stalks slightly hairy, 



