514 MANUAL OP POISONOUS PLANTS 



Distribution. Common in thickets from Eastern Canada to Iowa and Kan- 

 sas, and Texas. 



Poisonous properties. Large numbers of haw fruits are eaten, and several 

 deaths due to the eating of Crataegus have been reported in Iowa. These were 

 probably largely due to strangulation or indigestibility of the stony "seed." 

 The flesh is said to be indigestible as well. 



Fig. 275. Common Red Haw (.Crataegus mollis). (C. M. King) 



5. Prunus L. Plum and Cherry. 



Shrubs or trees with alternate petioled leaves and small stipules; flowers 

 variously clustered, mostly perfect; calyx inferior, free from the ovary, with a 

 bell-shaped or urn-shaped tube and 5 spreading lobes; falling after flowering; 

 petals white or pink; spreading stamens lS-20 or more, distinct, inserted on the 

 throat of the calyx, perigynous; pistil solitary; style simple; stigma capitate; 

 ovary 1-celled, 2-ovuled; fruit a drupe; seed usually one; embryo large, cotyle- 

 dons fleshy, endosperm absent. Species about 90, of the north temperate regions, 

 tropical America and Asia. The sweet cherry {Prunus avium), sour cherry (P. 

 Cerasus), native plum (P. americana), Chicksaw plum (P. Chicasa), European 

 plum (P. domestica) , Japan plum (P. triflora), the flowering almond (P. 

 triloba), peach (P. persica), and apricot (P. armeniaca) are all well known in 

 vcultivation. 



Prunus virginiana L,. Choke Cherry 



A tall shrub or small tree, bark gray; leaves thin, oval, oblong or obovate, 

 acuminate at the apex, smooth or slightly pubescent, sharply serrate, teeth 

 large; often doubly serrate; flowers white in rather loose racemes, terminating 

 leafy branches ; petals roundish, fruit red, turning dark or crimson. Astringent. 



Distribution. Forming thickets from New Foundland to Manitoba to Texas 

 and Georgia. 



