478 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



elongated slender densely villose pedicels, in broad open many-flowered toinentose corymbs, 

 with oblong or oblong-obovate acute conspicuous villose bracts and bractlets often 1|' in 

 length; calyx-tube broadly obconic, coated with pale tomentum, the lobes foliaceous, grad- 

 ually narrowed from a broad base, acuminate, coarsely glandular-serrate, and villose with 

 long matted pale hairs; stamens 20; anthers large, dark red; styles 5, surrounded at base 

 by a narrow ring of pale tomentum. Fruit ripening toward the end of October, in drooping 

 many-fruited tomentose ultimately glabrous clusters, obovoid and tomentose until nearly 

 grown, becoming when fully ripe short-oblong or slightly obovoid, rounded at the ends, 

 bright scarlet, marked by occasional large pale dots, puberulous at apex, f'-l' long; calyx 

 enlarged, with glandular-serrate usually erect lobes, dark red at base on the upper side, 

 often deciduous before the ripening of the fruit; flesh thick, yellow, sweet, and edible; 

 nutlets 5, slightly grooved on the back, \'-\' long. 



A tree, often 30 high, with a tall trunk sometimes a foot in diameter, thick branches 

 ascending while the tree is young, forming an open irregular crown, and spreading in old 

 age into a broad symmetrical round-topped head, and branchlets dark bronze-green and 

 covered with long matted white hairs when they first appear, becoming dull reddish brown 

 and ultimately pale ashy gray, and armed with occasional thin nearly straight bright 

 chestnut-brown lustrous spines usually about 2' long, or often unarmed. 



Distribution. Rich bottom-lands, Texas coast region; valley of the lower Brazos River 

 to those of the Navidad (Canardo, Jackson County), Guadalupe (Victoria, Victoria County), 

 and Cibolo (Sutherland Springs, Wilson County). 



83. Crataegus quercina Ashe. 



Leaves elliptic to obovate, usually acute or occasionally rounded at apex, obtusely or 

 acutely cuneate at the entire base, irregularly doubly serrate above with slender glandular 

 teeth, and often divided above the midrib into narrow acuminate lobes, when they unfold 



Fig. 435 



conspicuously plicate, often dark red and coated above with long soft pale hairs and covered 

 below with a thick coat of silvery white shining tomentum, about a third grown when the 

 flowers open from the middle to the end of March, and at maturity thin but firm in texture, 

 dark green, lustrous and scabrate above, pale and pubescent or tomentose below, and 2'-2|' 

 long and wide, with a slender midrib, 4 or 5 pairs of thin primary veins, and conspicuous 

 reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, tomentose, about \' in length; leaves at the end of vig- 

 orous shoots broad-ovate, rounded or obtusely cuneate at the wide base, usually deeply 

 divided into numerous acuminate lateral lobes, often 3' long and 2|' wide. Flowers f ' in 

 diameter, on long slender tomentose pedicels, in broad many-flowered lax hoary-tomen- 



