TREES AND SHRUBS. 



CRATAEGUS LTTDOVICIENSIS, Sarg. 



(Virides.) 

 Crat^gus Ludoviciensis, n. sp. 



Glabrous with the exception of a few caducous hairs on the upper surface of the midribs of 

 the young leaves and petioles, and on the very young branchlets. Leaves obovate, rounded and 

 short-pointed or acute at the apex, gradually narrowed and concave-cuneate at the entire base, 

 finely, often doubly serrate above, with straight or incurved glandular teeth, and rarely slightly 

 lobed above the middle ; more than half grown when the flowers open and then very thin, light 

 yellow-green, nearly glabrous and very smooth above and pale bluish green below, and at 

 maturity thin, yellow-green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, from 5 

 to 8 centimetres long and from 3.5 to 6 centimetres wide, with thin yellow midribs and primary 

 veins ; petioles slender, wing-margined at the apex, occasionally glandular early in the season, 

 from 1.5 to 1.8 centimetres in length. Flowers from 1.5 to 1.6 centimetres in diameter, on long 

 slender pedicels, in wide lax mostly ten to fifteen-flowered corymbs, the lower peduncles from the 

 axils of upper leaves ; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, the lobes long, very slender, acuminate, entire 

 or occasionally minutely dentate near the middle, reflexed after anthesis ; stamens fifteen ; anthers 

 yellow ; styles three or four, usually four. Fruit on long slender stems, in wide many-fruited 

 spreading clusters, short-oblong, full and rounded at the ends, crimson, pruinose, from 1 to 1.2 

 centimetres in length and from 9 to 10 millimetres in diameter ; calyx little enlarged, with a deep 

 narrow cavity, and spreading often incurved persistent lobes ; flesh thin, yellow, dry, and mealy ; 

 nutlets usually four, slightly narrowed and rounded at the ends, ridged on the back, with a high 

 grooved ridge, from 6 to 6.5 millimetres long and about 4 millimetres wide. 



A tree, from 7 to 8 metres high, with a trunk sometimes 1 decimetre in diameter, covered with 

 dark scaly bark, small spreading branches forming an open head, and slender nearly straight 

 branchlets dark orange color and marked by pale lenticels when they first appear, becoming light 

 chestnut-brown and lustrous in their first season and dull reddish brown the following year, and 

 unarmed or furnished with occasional slender straight purplish shining spines 2.5 to 4 centimetres 

 long. Flowers appear during the first week of May. Fruit ripens late in September or in 

 October, often remaining on the branches until the middle of November. The leaves turn bright 

 orange color late in the autumn before falling. 



Bottom-lands of the Desperes River, Carondelet, South St. Louis, Missouri, J. H. Kellogg, 

 May 6, September 23, and November 19, 1902, May 7, 1903, May 3, 1905 (No. 7 type). 



This is one of the large-fruited Virides species of which Crataegus nitida, Sargent, of the same region may be 

 considered the type. Of the described species of this small group it is most nearly related to Crataegus mitis, Sargent, 

 of the bottom-lands of the Mississippi River in Illinois below East St Louis. It differs from that species in its much 

 thinner leaves, which are never rhombic, in its much more slender and usually entire calyx-lobes, fewer stamens, and 

 smaller fruits. 



