406 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



surface into small plate-like scales, stout ascending branches forming a broad irreg- 

 ular head, and nearly straight glabrous branchlets dark orange-green at first, be- 

 coming dull red-brown during their first season and darker brown the following 

 year. 



Distribution. Dry uplands and low rolling hills near Fulton, Arkansas, in the 

 valley of the Red River. 



40. Crataegus nitida, Sarg. 



Leaves lanceolate to oblong-obovate, acuminate, abruptly or gradually narrowed 

 and cuneate at the entire base, coarsely serrate above, with straight or incurved 

 glandular teeth, and often more or less divided into 2 or 3 pairs of broad acute 



lobes, when they unfold dark red and slightly villose along the upper side of the 

 midribs, with scattered caducous hairs, nearly fully grown when the flowers open 

 early in May, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green, very lustrous on 

 the upper surface, pale and dull on the lower surface, 2 '-3' long, and !'-!' wide, 

 with prominent midribs usually red on the lower side and few thin prominent pri- 

 mary veins generally extending to the points of the lobes, turning in the autumn rich 

 orange color through shades of bronze and orange-red; their petioles stout, gland- 

 ular, more or less winged above, villose while young on the upper side, soon becom- 

 ing glabrous, ^'-f long; on vigorous shoots more deeply lobed and frequently 5' 

 long and 2^' wide, with lunate stipitate coarsely glandular stipules occasionally \' 

 long. Flowers ^' in diameter, on slender elongated pedicels, in broad compound 

 many-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes 

 slender, elongated, acuminate, entire or sparingly glandular-serrate; stamens 15- 

 20; anthers pale yellow; styles 25. Fruit ripening at the end of October, on 

 slender elongated pedicels, in many-fruited drooping clusters, oblong, full and 

 rounded at the ends, pruinose, with a glaucous bloom, marked by small dark dots, 

 ^' f' long and about ' thick; calyx only slightly enlarged, the lobes dark red at 

 the base on the upper side, usually erect, often deciduous before the fruit ripens; 

 flesh thick, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 2-5, rounded and ridged on the back, 

 with a broad low rounded ridge, light-colored, \' long. 



A tree, 30 high, with a tall straight trunk sometimes 18' in diameter, covered 

 with close dark bark broken into thick plate-like scales, stout spreading lower 



