Ol 
REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 1903 3 
F 
NEW YORK SPECIES OF CRATAEGUS ‘ 
The number of published species of Crataegus found in the 
United States and Canada has increased surprisingly within the 
last five years. In the edition of Gray’s Manwal issued in 1890, 
10 species and three varieties are recognized as belonging to the 
territory covered by its flora. In the Illustrated Flora of- Britton 
and Brown, the second volume of which contains the descrip- 
tion of the species of this genus and which was issued in 1897, 
15 species and three varieties are recognized, but the territory 
covered is somewhat larger than that of the Manual. Britton’s 
Manual issued in 1901 increases the number to 31 species and 
retains but one variety. In the Silva of North America, volume 4, 
published in 1892, 14 species are described, but in volume 13, 
which appeared in 1902, the number of species is increased to 84 
and the statement is made that this does not include some im- 
perfectly known arboreous ‘species nor the merely shrubby species. 
In the Flora of the Southern States by J. K. Small, issued in 1903, 
185 species are described. Varieties are not recognized. In an 
article devoted to the species of Crataegus found in Rochester 
and its vicinity and published in the Proceedings of the Rochester 
Academy of Science, volume 4, 1903, C. S. Sargent has described 
28 new species and recorded the occurrence of 13 others exclu- 
sive of two introduced species which occasionally escape from 
cultivation. This makes 41 species for the limited area of 
Rochester and its vicinity, a number greater than that given 
in Britton’s Manual for the entire area eovered by it two years 
ago. From these data the inference is scarcely avoidable that 
many of the recently described species must resemble each other 
closely and must be founded on slight variations of specifie char- 
acters. If this inference is well founded, the conclusion is evi- 
dent that such closely allied species can not be recognized without 
a thorough knowledge of their distinguishing characters and this 
knowledge can scarcely be obtained without careful study and 
close observation. To properly represent such species in the 
