ROSACEAE 
The Haws, Thorns, Hawthorns or Thorn-apples 
Crataegus L, 
Owing to the complexity of the various forms in this group, 
the present state of uncertainty as to the value of certain char- 
acters, and the questionable validity of many of the assigned 
names, it is thought to be beyond the scope of this bulletin to give 
more than a general description of the group as a whole; recom- 
mending the more ambitious student to the various manuals and 
botanical journals and papers for more detailed information. 
The Crataegi are generally low, wide-spreading trees or 
shrubs, with strong, tortuous branches and more or less zigzag 
branchlets usually armed with stiff, sharp thorns. The bark 
varies from dark red to gray and is shallowly fissured or scaly. 
The leaves are alternate, simple, generally serrate, often lobed, 
with short or long petioles. The flowers appear in May or June, 
with or after the leaves, in simple or compound corymbs, whitish 
or pinkish, perfect. The fruit is a red to yellow, sometimes blue 
or black pome, subglobose to pear-shaped, with usually dry and 
mealy flesh and 1-5 seeds. The winter-buds are small, nearly 
globose, lustrous brown. Crataegus produces wood which is 
heavy, hard, tough, close-grained, red-brown, with thick, pale 
sapwood. The Haws are trees of the pasture-lands, the road- 
side, the open woods and the stream-banks, and are more com- 
mon in the southern than in the northern portions of the state. 
Some of the species are desirable as ornaments in parks and 
gardens on account of their beautiful and abundant flowers and 
showy fruits. 
—161— 
