446 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



and bractlets; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes glabrous, abruptly narrowed 

 from a broad base, acuminate, finely glandular-serrate below the middle with minute 

 stipitate red glands; stamens 20; anthers yellow; styles 2-4, usually 3. Fruit ripening the 

 middle of October, on slender pedicels, in many-fruited drooping clusters, subglobose to 

 short-oblong, rounded at the ends, dark crimson, marked by occasional large dark dots, \'- 

 f long, about ' in diameter; calyx only slightly enlarged, the lobes serrate, closely ap- 

 pressed, often deciduous from the ripe fruit; flesh thick, pale orange color, and juicy; nut- 

 lets usually 3, thick, full and rounded at the ends, prominently ridged on the back, with 

 a broad high rounded deeply grooved ridge, about \' long. 



A tree, 25-30 high, with a tall trunk sometimes a foot in diameter, covered with dark 

 scaly bark, large spreading branches forming a broad round-topped head, and glabrous 

 branchlets dull light reddish brown during their first season, becoming dark brown or ashy 

 gray, and armed with stout straight or slightly curved dull red-brown or purplish spines 

 usually about 1^' long. 



Distribution. Low moist rich soil on the bottoms of the Mississippi River near the vil- 

 lage of Kahokia, St. Glair County, Illinois. 



50. Crataegus atrorubens Ashe. 



Leaves ovate, acute, usually rounded or sometimes cuneate or truncate at the broad 

 entire base, coarsely and usually doubly serrate above, and often divided into 2 or 3 pairs 



Fig. 402 



of short acute lobes, about half grown when the flowers open late in April or early in May 

 and then slightly roughened above by short scattered white hairs, and furnished below 

 with conspicuous axillary tufts of pale tomentum, and at maturity thin, glabrous, dark 

 dull green and smooth on the upper surface, light yellow-green on the lower surface, about 

 2' long and If wide, or on vigorous shoots frequently 3' long, and 2^' wide, with a thin 

 midrib and 4 or 5 pairs of slender primary veins; petioles slender, nearly terete, more or less 

 densely villose early in the season, soon becoming glabrous, V-\\' in length. Flowers 

 about f in diameter, on slender elongated villose pedicels, in broad loose glabrous or 

 villose corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, densely villose throughout or only at base 

 with pale tomentum, the lobes short, acute, finely glandular-serrate, villose particularly 

 on the inner surface; stamens 20; styles 4 or 5, surrounded at base by a narrow ring of pale 

 tomentum. Fruit ripening and falling early in October, on slender pedicels, in drooping 

 few-fruited clusters, subglobose to short-oblong, rounded at the ends, dark red; calyx 

 somewhat enlarged, with spreading lobes usually deciduous before the fruit ripens; nutlets 

 4 or 5, thin, rounded and sometimes obscurely grooved on the back, about T V long. 



