412 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



incurved teeth, and divided in 3 or 4 pairs of short acute or acuminate lateral 

 lobes, when they unfold bright red and glabrous with the exception of a few short 

 caducous hairs on the upper side of the base of the midribs, nearly fully grown when 



the flowers open from the middle to the end of May and then membranaceous and 

 bluish green, and at maturity subcoriaceous, dark blue-green and often glaucous 

 above, pale below, 1' 1^' long, |' 1' wide, with slender midribs and 3 or 4 pairs of 

 thin primary veins running to the points of the lobes, late in the autumn turning dull 

 orange color; their petioles slender, glandular, slightly winged at the apex, !'-!$' 

 long, often bright red in early spring and in the autumn; on vigorous shoots broadly 

 ovate, often rounded at the base, more coarsely dentate and more deeply lobed, fre- 

 quently 2^' long and wide, with stouter and more broadly winged petioles. Flowers 

 '-!' in diameter, on long slender pedicels, in few-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx- 

 tube broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes gradually narrowed from wide bases, long- 

 pointed, finely glandular-serrate below the middle; stamens 20; anthers large, deep 

 rose color; styles 5, surrounded at the base by a thick band of hoary tomentum. 

 Fruit on long thin light green ultimately bright red pedicels, in few-fruited drooping 

 clusters, 5-angled, apple green, and covered with a glaucous bloom until nearly fully 

 ripe, at maturity late in October subglobose but rather broader than long, barely 

 angled, \'-\' in diameter, dark purple-red, marked by many small dull dots, very 

 lustrous; calyx prominent, with a long well-developed tube and enlarged usually 

 erect lobes often deciduous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, light yellow, sweet, 

 dry and mealy; nutlets 5, light-colored, acute at the apex, narrowed and rounded at 

 the base, deeply grooved on the back, \' long. 



A tree, 15-20 high, with a stem a few inches in diameter, spreading horizontal 

 branches forming a broad open irregular head, and branchlets armed with numerous 

 stout straight light chestnut-brown spines I'-l^' long; often shrubby, with several 

 intricately branched stems. 



Distribution. Slopes of low hills often in limestone soil; southwestern Vermont, 

 southward to the foothill region of the southern Appalachian Mountains, and west- 

 ward to central Illinois and Missouri. 



