ROSACEAE 



The Haws, Thorns, Hawthorns or Thorn-apples 



Crataegus, L. 



Owing to the complexity of the various forms in this group, 

 the present state of uncertainty as to the value of certain char- 

 acters, and the questionable validity of many of the assigned 

 names, it is thought to be beyond the scope of this bulletin to give 

 more than a general description of the group as a whole, recom- 

 mending the more ambitious student to the various manuals and 

 botanical journals and papers for more detailed information. 



The Crataegi are generally low, wide-spreading trees or 

 shrubs, with strong, tortuous branches and more or less zigzag 

 branchlets usually armed with stiff, sharp thorns. The bark 

 varies from dark red to gray and is shallowly fissured or scaly. 

 The leaves are alternate, simple, generally serrate, often lobed, 

 with short or long petioles.. The flowers appear in May or June, 

 with or after the leaves, in simple or compound corymbs, whitish 

 or pinkish, perfect. The fruit is a red to yellow, sometimes blue 

 or black pome, subglobose to pear-shaped, with usually dry and 

 mealy flesh and 1-5 seeds. The winter-buds are small, nearly 

 globose, lustrous brown. Crataegus produces wood which is 

 heavy, hard, tough, close-grained, red-brown, with thick, pale 

 sapwood. The Haws are trees of the pasture-lands, the road- 

 side, the open woods and the stream-banks, and are more com- 

 mon in the southern than in the northern portions of the state. 

 Some of the species are desirable as ornaments in parks and 

 gardens on account of their beautiful and abundant flowers and 

 showy fruits. 



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