ROSE FAMILY 
A stanza of an ancient song runs thus :— 
Their spells were vain; the hags returned 
To the queen in sorrowful mood, 
Crying that witches have no power 
Where there is roan-tree wood. 
Pyrus sambucifolia is a tree of more northern range than 
P. americana. In general appearance it is not unlike it, but 
both blossoms and fruit are larger. 
COCKSPUR THORN. NEWCASTLE THORN 
Crategus cris-gdalli. 
Crategus is of Greek derivation, referring to the strength of the 
wood produced by the different species. Crus-ya/// refers to the 
character of the thorns. The name of Newcastle Thorn had its 
origin in the fact that this thorn was once largely used as a 
hedge plant by the farmers of Newcastle County, Delaware. 
A small tree with stout, rigid, spreading branches and a broad flat 
or round head. Branches usually armed with long slender spines. 
Roots fibrous. Loves rich soil along the margins of swamps or near 
streams ; succeeds as a hedge plant. 
Bark,.—Light reddish brown, or ashy gray, surface separated into 
scales. Branchlets at first green but soon become light brown or 
gray tinged with brown. In their second year they become armed 
with spines and these continue to enlarge for many years, often be- 
coming many branched and six or eight inches long. 
Wood.—Reddish brown; heavy, hard, close-grained with a satiny 
surface. Sp. gr., 0.7194; weight of cu. ft., 44.83 lbs. 
Winter Buds.—Chestnut brown, obtuse, one-eighth of an inch 
long. Inner scales grow with the growing shoot and often become 
one-half an inch long and bright red before they fall. 
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, obovate-cuneiform to broadly oval or 
linear-oblong, one to three inches long, tapering from the middle 
to the petiole, sharply serrate except toward the base, acute or 
rounded at apex. Feather-veined; midrib and primary veins nar- 
row. They come out of the bud conduplicate, when full grown are 
smooth, thick, dark green and shining above, paler beneath. In 
autumn they turn orange and scarlet. Petioles short, broad. Stipules 
vary in form from linear, acute to obliquely ovate, early deciduous. 
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