HOSACE^E 



511 



of short broad acute or acuminate lobes, nearly fully grown when the flowers open late in 

 April, and then subcoriaceous, pale yellow-green, and villose on the midrib with scattered 

 pale caducous hairs, and at maturity lustrous, dark yellow-green above, pale below, 2'-3' 

 long, and l'-2' wide, with a thin midrib, 5-7 pairs of thin light yellow veins and conspicu- 

 ous reticulate veinlets; turning in the autumn bright yellow and red; petioles slender, 

 glandular, more or less broadly winged toward the apex, f'-f in length; leaves at the end 

 of vigorous shoots oblong-ovate, concave-cuneate at base, often 3' long and 2' wide, their 

 petioles broadly wing-margined to below the middle. Flowers nearly 1' in diameter, on 

 long thin slightly villose pedicels, in 2-5 usually 3-flowered simple corymbs, with coarsely 

 glandular-serrate bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous or slightly 

 villose, the lobes foliaceous, acute, coarsely glandular-serrate above the middle; stamens 

 20; anthers large, dark rose color; styles 3-5, usually 4, surrounded at base by a narrow 

 ring of pale hairs. Fruit ripening and falling about the middle of September, often only a 

 single fruit maturing from a flower-cluster, subglobose to short-oblong, rounded at the 



Fig. 467 



ends, yellow or orange-yellow, generally more or less flushed with red, marked by occasional 

 large dark dots, \'-\' long; calyx prominent, with an elongated tube and closely appressed 

 lobes; flesh yellow, thin and hard; nutlets 3-5, usually 4, about j' long. 



An intricately branched tree, rarely more than 20 high, with a tall trunk 6'-7' in diame- 

 ter, stout ascending branches formipg a narrow or sometimes a round flat-topped head, 

 and glabrous branchlets armed with thin straight or slightly curved dark chestnut-brown 

 shining spines, f'-l^' long; often a large shrub, with few or many stems. 



Distribution. Rocky woods and bluffs in the foothill region of northwestern Georgia 

 (cliffs of the Coosa River near Rome, Floyd County), southeastern Tennessee (near Chata- 

 nooga, Hamilton County, and Tracy City, Grundy County), and northeastern Alabama; 

 very abundant in Alabama at Valley Head, De Kalb County, and on the low ridges extend- 

 ing southward to the neighborhood of Birmingham, Jefferson County. 



XIII. PULCHERRUVLE. 

 CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES. 



Leaves oval to ovate or nearly orbicular, their lobes acute or rounded; fruit bright red. 



116. C. opima (C). 

 Leaves ovate to oval or obovate, their lobes acute; fruit orange-red. 117. C. robur (C). 



