202 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA 



AMELANCHIER, Medicus. Skrvice-berry. 



(JuNii-BERRv. Shad-bush.) 



Two or more species of this genus have heen credited to Ala- 

 bama, but the distinctions between them are obscure, and it is al- 

 most impossible to distinguish them when they are not in bloom 

 or in fruit ; so they will be treated as one for the present. 



Amelanchier Canadensis (L.) Medic. (A. Botrxapiitm ( T^. f.) 



A shrub or small leaning tree, with wood hard and heavy, but 

 usually of too small dimensions to be of any value. It has racemes 

 of white flowers in early spring, and is occasionally cultivated for 

 ornament. The fruit is edible, but produced so sparingly in the 

 southeastern states that few people ever taste it. 



Grows mostly on bluffs and river-ljanks, and pro])ably needs 

 protection from fire. 



lA. Along Cj'press Creek near Fkirence. 

 IB. Blount County. 



2A. Cullman. Marshall and DeKalb Counties. 

 2B. Tuscaloosa County. 

 3. Cherokee and St. Clair Counties. 



(5. Doubtless occurs, but I never happened to notice it there. A speci- 

 men from Auburn is the type of A. Alabauicnsis. Britton.) 

 6A. Mp^rion and Chilton Counties. 

 6C. House Bluff, Autauga County. 

 7. Dallas (Cocks) and Montgomery Counties. 

 lOE. Pike County. 

 13 (?). Mobile County (Mohr). 



CRATAEGUS, Linnaeus. The (Red) Haws. 



(Hawthorns of English literature.) 



Small trees, usttally crooked and much branched, or shrubs; 

 more or less thorny : with decidu(jus leaves, white flowers, and 

 small, usually red, frttits, with large hard seeds (or rather nutlets). 

 They have hard wood, btit ])ractically none of them are large 

 enough for saw timber, and most of the species are rather scarce 

 besides ; so that the taxonomic difficulties mentioned below are 

 of little concern to foresters and wood users. Some of the species 

 are cultivated for ornament, and probably all of them could be. 

 The fruit of most of them is about the size of a common grape, 

 but rather dry and hardly worth eating, on account of the large 

 hard seeds. A few s])ecies. hcnvever. have juicv fruit that makes 

 excellent jellv. 



