464 



The Thorn Trees 



brown; the twigs are orange-green, hairy, or sometimes smooth at first, and are 



armed with curved chestnut-brown spines 2 to 4 cm. long. 



The leaves are oblong-obovate, some- 

 times ovate, 2 to 6 cm. long, 2 to 4 cm. 

 wide, doubly toothed, with broad teeth 

 and broad pointed lobes, bluntly 

 pointed or rounded at the apex, wedge- 

 shaped at the base, slightly hairy when 

 young, becoming smooth, dark green 

 above, paler beneath, half- leathery; leaf- 

 stalks slightly winged above, glandular, 



1 to 3 cm. long. The flowers are about 



2 cm. wide, in few-flowered, nearly 

 smooth corymbs; calyx-lobes linear, 

 long-pointed, short-hairy, glandular- 

 toothed; stamens about 20; anthers yel- 

 low; styles 2 or 3. The fruit ripens late in September; it is short-oblong or sub- 

 globose, dull dark red or orange- red; calyx-lobes spreading or erect; flesh yellow, 

 dry, mealy, containing 2 or 3 nutlets, commonly 2, about 6 mm. long, slightly 

 ridged on the back, the nest of nutlets about 6 mm. thick. 



Fig. 414. — Brown's Thorn. 



25. ROUND-LEAVED THORN — Crataegus rotundifoUa (Ehrhart) Mcench 



Mespilus rotundijolia Ehrhart 



This species seems to range farther north than any other American thorn; it 

 occurs in the rich, well-drained 

 soil at the lower altitudes, par- 

 ticularly along the coast from 

 Newfoundland and Lake St. 

 John, Quebec, south through 

 New England and the Alleghany 

 Mountains to northern Virginia 

 and west to Wisconsin and 

 northern Illinois. It is a tree 

 sometimes 7 meters high, but 

 more often a beautiful round- 

 topped shrub with ascending 

 branches; the bark is dark red- 

 brown, scaly; the twigs are red- 

 brown, smooth, and bear many J"'"- 415- - Round-leaved Thorn, 

 chestnut-brovrai curved spines 2 to 7 cm. long. 



The leaves are ovate-orbicular or obovate, 3 to 6 cm. long, 2 to 6 cm. wide, 

 pointed or long-poiated at the apex, wedge-shaped at the base, doubly toothed with 



