STUDIES IN CRATAGUS. 1. 
C. D, BEADLE, 
Few genera so widely distributed inthe United States have 
been so poorly interpreted by American botanists as the genus 
Crategus. In Europe there exists a better understanding of a 
number of American forms, a knowledge gained almost wholly 
from cultivated specimens, but it must be evident to any student 
of these interesting plants that all of the descriptions published 
up to the present time fall short of embracing the forms grow- 
ing in almost any section of the country. My attention was 
first drawn to the thorns about ten years ago, when I attempted 
to raise many thousands of young plants from seeds gathered in 
the southern Alleghany region. Making no attempt to propa- 
gate other than thrifty plants of the well-known and widely 
recognized species, I was perplexed to find a nursery of the most 
diverse forms under almost every label. Low and bushy plants 
With dark foliage stood in bold contrast with tall and fastigiate 
individuals with leaves of different tint and outline. No expla- 
Nation seemed more reasonable than that some careless gardener 
had mixed the seeds so painstakingly collected from fine, healthy 
individuals, and with a determination that more care should be 
- €xercised in succeeding attempts, the matter was dropped. The 
 ‘fext autumn the sowing was most carefully done, and while the 
fruits and seeds did not all look quite alike, it was easily demon- 
 Strated that the species recognized in our botanical field-books 
Were not confounded. The results of this seeding were even 
More confusing than the first, as the seeds were gathered from 
Wider fields, And thus the evidence accumulated each year, 
Until, almost unconsciously, I commenced to separate the forms as 
"ey Srew and the seeds as they were gathered. This acration 
: as complete, and as the oldest seedlings are now bearing the 
nds of fruits earlier recognized as strange, the publication of 
1899] we 
