816 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



adopted the latter mode, though, perhaps, not always the easiest for disco- 

 vering the name of a single species ; because, when once the species are 

 known which form the types of the different groups, it will be found prefer- 

 able to the other mode, both for ascertaining the names, and for studying the 

 plants, and impressing their characters and images on the memory. In order, 

 however, that "our readers may have the benefit of both modes, we shall give, 

 as an appendix to this genus, a technical classification of the species and 

 varieties as drawn up for us by Mr. Gordon (a descendant of the brother of 

 the celebrated Mile End nurseryman of that name), the foreman of the arbo- 

 ricultural department in the London Horticultural Society's Garden. 



The price of dwarf plants of almost all the species (except C. Oxya- 

 cantha), in the London nurseries, is Is. 6d. each ; and of standards, 2s. 6d. : 

 at Bollwyller, 1 franc, or 1 franc and 50 cents ; and standards, 2 or 3 francs : 

 at New York, the price varies from 25 to 50 cents. If there were such a 

 demand for the plants as we think there ought to be, seedlings of most of 

 the species might be sold at about treble the price of the seedlings of the 

 common thorn used in hedgemaking. (See C. Oxyacantha.) 



i. Coccinea. 



Sect. Char., Sec. Leaves cordate, lobed, acutely serrated. Flowers and fruit 

 large. The plants also large, and of free and vigorous growth. 



t 1. C. COCCI'NEA L. The scarlet-fruited Thorn. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 682. ; Pursh Amer. Sept., 1. p. 337. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 627. ; Don's Mill., 



2. p. 599. 

 Synonymes. C. aestiv&Hs Sooth ; Mdspilus aestiv&lis Walt. Fl. Car. ; M. coccfnea MM., Nouv. Du 



Ham. ; thornless American Azarole ; Niftier ecarlate, Fr. ; scharlachrothe Mispel, Gcr. 

 Engravings. Pluk.,t 46. f. 4. ; Dend. Brit, t. 62. ; Bot. Mag., t. 3432. ; our fig. 564. in p. 851. ; and 



the plate in our Second Volume 



Spec. Char., $c. Disks of leaves cordate-ovate, angled with lobes, acutely 

 serrated, glabrous. Petioles and calyxes pubescent, glanded. Petals orbi- 

 culate. Styles 5. Fruit scarlet, eatable. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 627, 628.) A 

 tree growing to the height of 15 ft. or 20 ft.; a native of North America, 

 from Canada to Carolina, in hedges and woods ; and, in May and June, 

 producing its white flowers, which are succeeded by large scarlet haws, 

 round, or somewhat pear-shaped, which ripen in September. In Britain, 

 into which country this tree was introduced in 1683, it grows rapidly to 

 the height of 20 ft. (or, in good soils, and sheltered situations, to 30 ft. or 

 upwards), with a large upright trunk, dividing into many strong, irregular, 

 smooth branches, so as to form a heajd of greater breadth than the entire 

 height of the tree, in most varieties"; though in others the head is more 

 compact and fastigiate. Some of the plants are entirely without spines ; 

 and, in most, they disappear with age : among a number of seedlings, how- 

 ever, some will be found with spines of extraordinary dimensions, of which 

 there is a remarkable example in a specimen plant, 10 ft. high, in the Fulham 

 Nursery. The leaves are often 4 in. or 5 in. long, and 3 in. or 4 in. broad, 

 particularly in the variety called C. c. maxima ; of a pale green, and cut in 

 the edges in a sharp shreddy manner, which gives them somewhat the 

 appearance of being fringed. Both the leaves and fruit vary exceedingly 

 in size, in plants raised from seed. The seedling plant before referred to, 

 in the Fulham Nursery, has leaves twice as large as those of the grafted 

 plant in the Horticultural Society's collection. 



Varieties. It would be easy to procure as many varieties of this species as 

 there are of the common hawthorn, by raising some thousands of plants 

 every year from seed, and selecting from the seed-beds plants indicating any 

 peculiarity of leaf, or of habit ; but as, in the nurseries, the most rapid way 

 of producing saleable plants of this, and all the other species and varieties 

 of CYatae N gus, is found to be by grafting on the common hawthorn, very 

 few seedlings are raised, and the varieties in cultivation are only the three 

 or four following : 



