512 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



116. Crataegus opima Beadl. 



Leaves oval to ovate or nearly orbicular, acute, gradually or abruptly narrowed and 

 cuneate at the entire base, finely serrate above with incurved teeth, and usually divided 

 above the middle into short acute, acuminate or rounded lobes, half grown when the 

 flowers open the middle of April, and then glabrous with the exception of a few short cadu- 

 cous hairs on the midrib and veins, and at maturity light green on the upper surface, pale 

 on the lower surface, l' long, and lj' wide, with a slender midrib, and 5 or 6 pairs of 

 arcuate primary veins spreading to the point of the lobes; petioles narrowly winged at 

 the apex, usually about f ' in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots sometimes rounded 

 or nearly truncate at base and 1|'-2|' long and broad. Flowers about f in diameter, on 

 short slender pedicels, in compact few-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube broadly ob- 

 conic, glabrous, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acute, entire or sparingly 

 glandular-serrate, tipped with dark red glands, glabrous on the outer surface, puberulous 

 on the inner surface; stamens 20; anthers dark rose color; styles 3-5, surrounded at base 

 by a narrow ring of snowy white tomentum. Fruit ripening about the 1st of October and 



Fig. 468 



then remaining on the branches for several weeks, on short stout pedicels, in compact few- 

 fruited erect or drooping clusters, subglobose, often rather longer than broad, bright red, 

 about i' in diameter; calyx prominent, with a well-developed tube, and much enlarged 

 closely appressed lobes often deciduous with the tube before the fruit becomes entirely 

 ripe; flesh thin, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 3-5, thin, \' long. 



A tree, 20-25 high, with a tall, slender often spiny trunk covered with ashy gray bark 

 nearly black at the base of old trees, spreading and ascending branches forming a rounded 

 or oval usually open head, and thin nearly straight bright red-brown glabrous branchlets 

 becoming gray tinged with red or brown in their second season, and armed with thin 

 nearly straight bright chestnut-brown lustrous spines, I'-l^' long. 



Distribution. Open woods in clay soil in the neighborhood of Greenville, Butler County, 

 Alabama; common near Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. 



117. Crataegus robur Beadl. 



Leaves ovate, oval or obovate, acute or acuminate, entire or sparingly glandular below, 

 finely serrate above with incurved glandular teeth, and incisely lobed above the middle 

 with numerous short acute lobes, nearly fully grown when the flowers open at the end of 

 March, and then membranaceous and dark yellow-green and lustrous, and at maturity 



