TREES AND SHRUBS. 



CRATAEGUS PEESISTENS, Saeg. 



(Crus-galli.) 



Crataegus persistens, Sargent, n. sp. 



Leaves lanceolate to oblong-obovate, acuminate at the ends and coarsely often doubly, serrate 

 above the middle ; nearly fully grown when the flowers open and then thin, yellow-green, very 

 lustrous and slightly hairy especially along the midribs above, and pale bluish green and glabrous 

 below, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the 

 lower surface, from 5 to 6.5 centimetres long and from 2 to 2.5 centimetres wide, with thin 

 prominent midribs and primary veins ; petioles stout, wing-margined to below the middle, slightly 

 villose on the upper side while young, soon glabrous, from 1 to 1.5 centimetres in length ; stipules 

 linear to linear-obovate, acuminate, slightly falcate, glandular-serrate, conspicuous, persistent until 

 after the petals fall ; leaves on vigorous shoots often from 7 to 8 centimetres long and from 4 to 

 4.5 centimetres wide. Flowers 2 centimetres in diameter, on long slender slightly villose pedicels, 

 in broad open mostly from 12- to 15-flowered corymbs, the much elongated lower peduncles from 

 the axils of upper leaves ; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes long, slender, acu- 

 minate, glandular-serrate above the middle, or nearly entire, glabrous on the outer surface, slightly 

 villose on the inner surface, reflexed after anthesis ; stamens 20 ; anthers white ; styles 2 or 3, 

 surrounded at the base by a broad ring of pale tomentum. Fruit ripening in October and per- 

 sistent without change of color late into the winter, on slender glabrous pedicels, in gracefully 

 droopiug many-fruited clusters, short-oblong or slightly obovate, truncate and sometimes slightly 

 depressed at the apex, rounded at the base, crimson, not lustrous, marked by large dark dots, 

 about 1.5 centimetres long and broad ; calyx little enlarged, with a narrow deep cavity pointed 

 in the bottom, and small spreading lobes; flesh thick, light yellow, mealy, of good flavor; nutlets 

 2 or 3, narrowed and rounded at the ends, rather broader at the base than at the apex, rounded 

 and ridged on the back with a high narrow ridge, from 7.5 to 8 millimetres long and 3.5 milli- 

 metres wide. 



A low flat-topped tree (in the Arnold Arboretum 3 or 4 metres high), with a short stout 

 trunk 2.5 decimetres in diameter, covered with dark gray-brown scaly bark, large wide-spreading 

 smooth pale gray branches, and stout only slightly zigzag branchlets, light orange-green and 

 slightly villose when they first appear, soon glabrous, becoming light orange-brown and lustrous 

 during their first season and dull gray-brown the following year, and armed with numerous stout 

 straight light chestnut-brown shining spines from 3 to 5.5 centimetres long. Flowers the middle 

 of June. Fruit ripens in November. 



The origin of this plant is unknown. It was raised at the Arnold Arhoretum from seeds sent in 1876 from the Mu- 

 seum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris under the name of Crataegus lobata. The Crataegus lobata cultivated at the Mu- 

 seum in 1887 and in the Arhoretum Segrezianum as Crataegus Loddigesiana is not the C. lobata Bosc, which is one of 

 the Flava Group from the southern United States, but probably should be referred to Crataegus stipidosa Steudel, a 

 Mexican species with densely tomentose corymbs, leaves slightly lobed above the middle and more or less villose during 

 the season, especially on the midribs and veins. The fruit of the Mexican plant and its pedicels, moreover, are hairy 

 and the spines are much lighter in color. It is possible that the seeds sent to the Arboretum had been gathered from 

 the plant cultivated at the Muse'um as Crataegus lobata and that they had been influenced by pollen from a Crus-galli 

 species. Crataegus persistens looks more like the plants of the Crus-galli Group than like Crateegus stipvlosa, but the 

 fact that it holds its leaves very late in the autumn without change of color points to Mexican origin, for this is certainly 



