468 



The Thorn Trees 



usually with several pairs of spreading broad-pointed or pointed lobes, green, 



thin but firm, slightly hairy on the veins 

 beneath; leaf-stalks glandular, sHghtly 

 hairy, 2 to 3 cm. long. The flowers are 

 about 20 mm. wide in few-flowered, 

 smooth cor}'mbs, the calyx-lobes ovate, 

 pointed, remotely glandular-toothed; 

 stamens about 20; anthers pink; styles 

 3 to 5. The fruit ripens late; it is sub- 

 globose, 5-angled, about 20 mm. thick, 

 dark crimson; the calyx-lobes are erect, 

 conspicuous; flesh firm, tinged with red, 

 subacid; it contains 3 to 5 nutlets, 

 usually 5, 7 to 9 mm. long, grooved on 

 the back, the nest of nutlets 9 to 11 

 mm. thick with a deep sinus between 

 the nutlets. 



Fig. 420. Eggert's Thorn. 



Cratagus dilatata Sargent is an eastern form, with bright red fruit and larger 

 corymbs. 



31. PRINGLE'S THORN Cratffigus Pringlei Sargent 



Pringle's thorn grows from western New England southward to Pennsylvania 

 and westward to southern Ontario, Michigan, and northern Illinois. It is a tree 

 sometimes 8 meters high, with ascending branches forming a broad round-topped 

 crown; the bark is thin, scaly and red-brown; the twigs are chestnut-brown, hairy, 

 becoming gray and smooth, the curved chestnut-brown spines from 3 to 5 cm. long. 



The leaves are ovate-oval, 3 to 9 cm. long, 2.5 to 8 cm. wide, broadly pointed 

 at the apex, rounded or abruptly wedge- 

 shaped at the base, doubly toothed, the 

 terminal leaves often with several pairs 

 of broad-pointed or pointed lobes, bronze- 

 green and hairy when young, becoming 

 bright yellow-green and smooth above, 

 paler beneath, hairy along the veins, be- 

 coming nearly smooth, thin; leaf-stalks 

 hairy, glandular, i to 3 cm. long. The 

 flowers are about 2 cm. wide, in many- 

 flowered, hairy (sometimes nearly smooth) 

 corymbs; calyx-tube shghtly hairy, the lan- 

 ceolate long-pointed lobes nearly smooth, 

 gland ular- toothed ; stamens 5 to 20; an- 

 thers pink; styles 3 to 5. The fruit ripens ^^- ^^" " ^""^^^'^ '^^- 

 about the first of October; it is short-oblong, about 15 mm. thick, red and hairy; 



