ROSACES 407 



branches and erect upper branches forming a broad often irregular head, and slender 

 glabrous brauchlets bright orange-brown and lustrous during their first and second 

 seasons, becoming pale reddish brown in their third year, and ultimately ashy 

 gray, and unarmed or armed with occasional straight thin bright chestnut-brown 

 lustrous spines I'-l^' long. 



Distribution. Bottoms of the Mississippi River, Illinois, opposite the city of St. 

 Louis; common. 



41. Craaetgus mitis, Sarg., n. sp. 



Leaves obovate to oval or rhomboidal, acute or rarely rounded at the apex, 

 gradually narrowed and concave-cuneate at the entire base, and coarsely serrate 

 above, with straight glandular teeth, nearly fully grown when the flowers open during 

 the first week of May, and then light yellow-green above, paler below, and glabrous 

 with the exception of a few short hairs on the upper side of the midribs, and at 

 maturity subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale yellow- 

 green on the lower surface, l^'-2^' long, I'-l^' wide, with prominent midribs and 

 slender primary veins; their petioles stout, wing-margined at the apex, occasionally 

 glandular, with minute glands, 1J'-1' long. Flowers ^'-f in diameter, on long 

 slender pedicels, in compact compound 8-15-flowered glabrous corymbs, with red 

 glandular bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube narrowly obcouic, glabrous, the lobes 

 abruptly narrowed from broad bases, 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, full and rounded at the ends, 

 dark crimson marked by occasional large dark dots, ^'-f' long, about ' wide; calyx 

 only slightly enlarged, the lobes serrate, closely appressed, often deciduous from the 

 ripe fruit; flesh thick, pale orange color, and juicy ; nutlets 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 



