ROSACE^E 433 



pubescent during their first season, and furnished with stout straight bright red-brown 

 shining spines l'-2' long. 



Distribution. Low rich soil inundated during several weeks in winter, among Oaks 

 and Hickories; near Allenton, St. Louis County, Missouri. 



37. Cratsegus pratensis Sarg. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, acute or rounded at apex, gradually narrowed below from near 

 the middle to the cuneate entire base, sharply and often doubly serrate usually only above 

 the middle with straight or incurved teeth tipped early in the season with a minute dark 

 red caducous gland, and often more or less deeply divided toward the apex into short broad 

 acute lobes, when they unfold bright bronze-yellow or dark red, and covered with short 

 pale hairs, almost smooth and nearly fully grown when the flowers open at the end of May, 

 and at maturity glabrous, thick, dark green and lustrous above, pale below, l|'-2' long, and 

 I'-lf ' wide, with a thin midrib, and 4 or 5 pairs of primary veins extending obliquely toward 



Fig. 389 



the end of the leaf, and raised and prominent below; petioles slender, glabrous, usually 

 about \' in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots often oval or broad-ovate, frequently 

 3' long and 2|' wide. Flowers \' in diameter, on long slender pedicels, in broad loose 

 many-flowered corymbs pubescent or puberulous at first but soon glabrous; calyx-tube 

 narrowly obconic, coated toward the base with long matted pale hairs, the lobes narrow, 

 acuminate, coarsely glandular-serrate, glabrous on the outer surface, villose on the inner 

 surface; stamens 10; anthers small, rose color; styles 2 or 3, surrounded at base by a narrow 

 ring of pale tomentum. Fruit ripening early in October and remaining on the branches 

 until November, on elongated pedicels, in loose drooping many-fruited clusters, globose, 

 bright scarlet, slightly pruinose, marked by occasional large pale dots, about \' in diameter; 

 calyx prominent, with much enlarged coarsely glandular-serrate lobes often deciduous be- 

 fore the fruit becomes entirely ripe; flesh thin and yellow; nutlets 2 or 3, thick and broad, 

 about j' long. 



A tree, occasionally 20 high, with a tall trunk 3'-7' in diameter, often armed with long 

 slender much-branched ashy gray spines, spreading branches forming a round-topped sym- 

 metrical head, and branchlets occasionally slightly villose when they first appear, soon 

 glabrous, light orange-brown in their first season, and reddish or grayish brown the follow- 

 ing year, and furnished with numerous thin straight or slightly curved shining chestnut- 

 brown spines 2'-3' long. 



Distribution. Open woods near the banks of small streams in the prairie region of Stark 

 and Peoria Counties, Illinois. 



