Southern Black Haw 



857 



ovoid, and rather gradually contracted to a blunt tip; the leaf buds are much 

 shorter as well as narrower; the rather thin, but firm, usually smooth leaves are 

 2.5 to 8 cm. long, oval, ovate or obovate, or sometimes nearly orbicular, either 

 sharp or blunt, or sometimes short taper-pointed, very finely toothed; the base is 

 rounded or somewhat narrowed into the short slender stalk. The cymes are 3 to 

 10 cm. across, sessile or usually so; the corolla is white and 5-lobed. The fruit is 

 7 to ID mm. long, oval to subglobose, bluish black with a bloom, sweet and edible 

 after being frosted ; the stone is oblong, flat on one side and convex on the other. 



The wood is very hard, strong but brittle, reddish brown, with a specific gravity 

 of about 0.83. The bark of the trunk as well as that of the root is astringent and 

 otherwise medicinal and is official in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia. 



What has been said of the ornamental features of Sweet Viburnum applies 

 equally well to this species. It has somewhat different habit, and smaller leaves 

 with different autumnal coloration. It is also called Stagbush, Sloe, Sheepberry, 

 Nannyberr}^ Sweet haw, and Haw. 



4. SOUTHERN BLACK HAW Viburnum rufidulum Rafinesque 



Viburnum rujotomentosum Small 



This Black haw, grows in woods and thickets, from Mar}'land to Florida, Ilh- 

 nois and Kansas to Texas; usually a shrub, it frequently becomes a tree with a 

 maximum height of about 12 meters, and 

 a trunk diameter of 4.5 dm. It is also 

 called Rusty nannyberry. 



The rough reddish brown bark exhales 

 a heavy odor when bruised. The twigs 

 are grayish, the ovoid buds are densely 

 covered with short rusty-brown hairs. The 

 leathery leaves var>' in outhne from ovate- 

 oblong to obovate, some are broadest near 

 the base, others are broadest near the apex, 

 which is usually blunt-pointed ; the margins 

 are finely but sharply toothed, the base is 

 narrowed or rounded; they are 7 to 10 cm. 

 long and have a winged leaf-stalk 6 to 15 

 mm. long, which, hke the veins on the 

 under side of the leaf, is thickly covered 

 by red-brown hairs. The flowers are clus- 

 tered in rather large 3- to 5- rayed cymes, Tig. 780. Southi-m Black Haw. 

 which are sessile or nearly so. The white corolla is 7 to 10 mm. broad, deeply 

 cleft into 5 broadly ovate lobes, which are shorter than the slender stamens with 

 their relatively large anthers. The fruit is an oval drupe 10 to 14 mm. long, of a 

 deep blue color and covered with a bloom. The stone is nearly orbicular. 



