472 



The Thorn Trees 



toothed, densely white woolly-hairy on the 

 lower surface, with rigid appressed hairs 

 on the upper surface when immature, be- 

 coming merely rough, dark green above, 

 half -leathery; leaf-stalks wooUy-hairy, 5 to 

 25 mm. long. The flowers, about 2 mm. 

 broad, are in many-flowered white woolly- 

 hairy corymbs; calyx densely woolly-hairy, 

 the lobes ovate, long-pointed, glandular- 

 toothed; stamens about 20; anthers pink; 

 style 5. The fruit, ripening the last of 

 October, is subglobose to short-oblong, 

 about 15 mm. thick, bright cherry-red, 

 woolly-hairy on the ends, its calyx-lobes 

 spreading; flesh orange, dry and mealy, con- 

 taining 5 nutlets, 6 to 8 mm. long, grooved on the back, the nest of nutlets 8 to 11 

 mm. thick, with a deep sinus between nutlets. 



Fig. 426. — Woolly Thorn. 



37. WASHINGTON THORN — Cratagus Phanopyrum (Linnaeus fils) 



Medicus 



Cratcegus cordata Aiton, not Mespilus cordata Miller. Mespilus Phcenopyrum 



Linnaeus fils 



This species grows in moist, rich soil along streams, from Virginia, south along 

 the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains 

 to northern Georgia and Alabama, and from 

 the lower Wabash valley in Illinois to south- 

 em Missouri and northwestern Arkansas. It 

 is often cultivated, and has become natural- 

 ized as far north as Delaware and eastern 

 Pennsylvania. It is frequently a large, 

 spreading shrub, and sometimes becomes a 

 tree 9 meters high, with nearly erect branches 

 forming an oblong head ; the bark is grayish 

 brown, scaly; the twigs are chestnut-brown, 

 smooth, bearing slightly curved spines 2 to 

 5 cm. long. 



The leaves are broadly ovate to triangu- 

 lar, 2 to 8 cm. long, 2 to 8 cm. wide, pointed 

 or long-pointed at the apex, rounded or 

 heart-shaped at the base, 3- to 7-lobed, 3 of 

 the lobes generally strongly marked, toothed or doubly toothed, with pointed teeth, 

 smooth, or with a few hairs along the veins when young, bright green above. 



Fig. 427. — Washington Thom. 



