156 TREES 



botanists and horticulturists. The showy flowers and 

 fruits, the vivid coloring of autumn foliage, and the strik- 

 ing picturesqueness of the bare tree, with its rigid branches 

 armed with menacing thorns, give most of these little 

 trees attractiveness at any season. They grow in any 

 soil and in any situation, and show the most remarkable 

 improvement when cultivated. Their roots thrive in 

 heavy clay. When young the httle trees may be easily 

 transplanted from the wild. They come readily from 

 seed, though in most species the seed takes two years to 

 germinate. 



With few exceptions, the flowers of our hawthrons are 

 pure white, perfect, their parts in multiples of five — a 

 family traits Each flower is a miniature white rose. 

 Rounded corymbs of these flowers on short side twigs 

 cover the tree with a robe of white after the leaves appear. 

 In autumn little fleshy fruits that look like apples, cluster 

 on the twigs. Inside the thick skin, the flesh is mealy 

 and sweetish around a few hard nutlets that contain the 

 seed. As a rule, the fruits are red. In a few species they 

 are orange; in still fewer, yellow, blue, or black. 



It is not practicable to describe the many varieties of our 

 native hawthorns in a volume of the scope of this one. 

 A few of the most distinctive species only can be included, 

 but no one will ever confuse a hawthorn with any other 

 tree. 



The Cockspur Thorn 



C Crus-galli, Linn. 



The cockspur thorn is a small, handsome tree, fifteen 

 to twenty feet high, with stiff branches in a broad round 

 head. The thorns on the sides of the twig are three to 



