FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 347 



CRAT.ffiGUS. HAWS. 



The haws are a very large group of small, thorny trees and shrubs, widely dis- 

 tributed in this and the old World. Fnun the abundance of their keen, often 

 very long, woody thorns, they are everywhere known, and generally distinguished 

 from other woody plants, as "hawthorns," "haws," or "thorns." Excepting 

 the few western species, which form useful chaparral cover, the other represent- 

 atives are of little forest value and of no commercial importance. They pro- 

 duce dense, heavy, sappy, exceedingly tough wood, which warps and cheeks 

 badly in drying. Excepting occasional use for small tool-handles and other 

 turned articles, the wood is of no economic value. 



In eastern North America, where a vast number of species are known, they are 

 aggressive in taking possession of abandoned farm or cleared lands. Their 

 sharp thorns protect them from grazing animals. Later these impenetrable 

 thickets are gradually invaded by commercial species through the agency of 

 wind and animals, and finally, under denser shade, the thorns succumb. 



Their usually small leaves, shed every autumn, are arranged like those of the 

 apples, while the small apple-like fruits, bright red, yellow, or black, in branched 

 clusters, have dryish, unpalatable — but occasionally tart and palatable — flesh 

 with from 1 to 5 joined (but separable), very hard, bony seeds, which, on account 

 of their thick shells, germinate tardily, often " lying over " for a season. The 

 white to rosy flowers (similar in appearance and structure to pear and apple 

 blossoms) are produced in flatfish, branched, erect clusters at the ends of new 

 shoots, after the leaves are grown. Myriads of insects visit the flowers and 

 assist in their cross-fertilization ; birds and mammals, which devour the fruits, 

 assist in disseminating the seeds of many species. 



Exclusive of shrubby thorns, there are about 100 species now known to occur 

 in the United' States and adjacent territory. These include a number of little- 

 known forms which may be separated as distinct species upon later study. 

 Only one species is known to inhabit the Pacific region. 



No other group of North American trees presents such almost insurmountable 

 difficulties in point of distinctive characters. It is impossible, and, fortunately. 

 unnecessary for the practical forester to know them all, and exceedingly diffi- 

 cult even for the specialist. The points relied upou to distinguish the species 

 are. unfortunately, too often found mainly in the organs of the flowers and in 

 the ripening and falling of the fruit — characters which are observable only at 

 special times. A number of thorns can be distinguished by their mature leaves, 

 but a very large number of them can not. Students of western forests have a 

 comparable problem in the polymorphous oaks, but nature has luckily spared 

 them such perplexities as those ottered by the haws. 



Black Haw. 

 Cratwg us douglasii Lindley. 



DIS'I'I NGUISHING < 1 1 ARA< ITERISTTCS. 



Black haw is mainly a low. much-branched shrub, or else a shrub with taller. 

 Blender stems, forming dense thickets. In rich, moist soil it becomes a tree 

 from 2<i to 36 feet high and from 10 to 20 inches in diameter, and then has a 

 straight, slightly seamed, reddish brown trunk and a densely branched, dome- 

 like crown. .Mature twigs of the season are a clear, shiny red. Mature leaves 

 (tig. It;:', i are thick, somewhat leathery, smooth (sometimes shiny i : deep green 

 on their upper sides and paler green beneath. The very characteristically 



