360 TREES IN WINTER 



THE HAWTHORNS 

 Thorns, Haws, Thorn Apples, White Thorns. 



Crataegus L. 



NOTE — The Hawthorns form one of the most perplexing genera 

 among- flowering plants. Some 600 species have been described and 

 Sargent in his Manual gives descriptions of 132 tree-like forms for 

 North America. The distinctions used are based largely upon flower and 

 fruit characters. They are at best often difl^cult of application and 

 entirely unavailable in the winter. It seems, therefore, most advisable 

 to give a description which will hold good for the whole group rather 

 than a detailed account of any single species. The twig photographed 

 was taken from the Cockspur Thorn [Crataegus Crus-galli L..]; the habit 

 photograph from an undetermined specimen belonging to the 

 Pruinosa group growing in a deserted pasture, 



HABIT — Generally low wide spreading trees or shrubs. , 



BARK — Generally dark, scaly. 



TWIGS — Rigid, round in section, more or less zigzag, rarely unarmed, 

 generally armed with axillary thorns which are almost always un- 

 branched — not infrequently branched when arising from the trunk and 

 larger branches — generally similar in color to branches from which they 

 grow; thorns generally absent from many of the nodes. LENTICELS — 

 oblong, generally pale. 



LEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, small, narrow, cres- 

 cent-shaped, slightly raised. STIPULE-SCARS — absent. BUNDLE- 

 SCARS— 3. 



BUDS — Small, spherical or nearly so; terminal bud generally present, 

 scarcely larger than lateral buds; a lateral accessory bud on each side 

 of the axillary thorn, frequently only one of the two developed. BUD- 

 SCALES — numerous, overlapping, thick, rounded, blunt, bright chestnut 

 brown, shining. 



FRUIT — Berry-like, botanically a small drupe-like pome with 1-5 

 nutlets. 



COMPARISONS — The Hawthorns may be distinguished from other 

 genera by the unbranched axillary thorns usually present on their 

 twigs, and by the bright, shining, chestnut brown, generally spherical 

 buds. The thorns of the Honey Locust are branched and situated some 

 distance above the axillary buds. The Osage Orange [Madura pomifera 

 (Raf.) Schneider], sometimes grown in hedges, has unbranched thorns 

 generally present at all the nodes, decreasing regularly, toward the 

 tip of the greenish-gray twigs, without terminal buds but with buds 

 lateral to the thorns and in the broad leaf-scar a single more or 

 less ring-shaped bundle-scar or a number of nearly confluent bundle- 

 scars. 



DISTRIBUTION — The Hawthorns are most abundant in eastern North 

 America occurring here from Newfoundland to the mountains of north- 

 ern Mexico. A few species occur in the Rocky mountains and Pacfiic 

 coast regions and in China, Japan, Siberia, central and southern Asia 

 and in Europe. 



AVOOD — Heavy, hard, tough, close-grained, reddish-brown, with thick 

 lighter colored usually pale sapwood; useful for the handles of tools, 

 mallets and other small articles. 



