BILTMORE BOTANICAL STUDIES 



115 



cheeked with red, the flesh soft : nutlets mostly 3, 7-8 mm long, the 

 lateral surfaces almost plane : hypostyle 4~5 mm long. 



Crataegus audens is abundant on dry hills near Chattahoochee, Florida 

 (type locality). 



The original specimens, representing flowers (H^ogy) and fruit {H4Q63) from 

 the same tree, are preserved in the Biltmore Herbarium. 



Crataegus meridiana n. sp. 



A small tree or large shrub 3-7™ tall, sometimes with atrunk 2 dm 

 in diameter, clothed with dark, rough, or rimose bark, the recurved 

 branches frequently armed with spines 2-3 cm long : branchlets slen- 

 der, zigzag, pubescent when young, becoming glabrous with age, 

 dark reddish-brown, marked with small pale lenticels : buds globu- 

 lar, bright reddish-brown, the outer scales obtuse, the inner pointed : 

 leaves cuneate, obovate-cuneiform, or on vigorous shoots broader 

 than long, the blades 2-3 cm long, jrnm_^cm w ide, abruptly pointed 

 or lobed at the apex, narrowed or contracted at the base, the bor- 

 ders dentate, glandular, shallowly lobed above the middle ; the)' 

 are glabrate on the upper surface at maturity, more or less pubes- 

 cent beneath, especially along the midrib and in the axils of the 

 prominent veins, and when young are sparsely coated on both 

 surfaces with pale hairs, bright green, eventually firm to subcoria- 

 ceous in texture, fading in autumn with tones of yellow, orange 

 and brown : petioles 7mm_gcm \ on g } winged, glandular, pubescent : 

 flowers i8-2o mm wide, opening about the 10th of April and when 

 the leaves are about half grown ; they are produced in simple, 

 3-5-flowered corymbs which terminate short, leafy branchlets : 

 pedicels and hypanthium tomentose : sepals 5-6 mm long, glandu- 

 lar, serrate, reflexed after anthesis : stamens 20, the anthers light 

 yellow or nearly white : fruit, which ripens and falls in August or 

 early in September, pyriform, y-g mm thick, i2-i5 mm long, at 

 maturity orange-yellow, sometimes flushed or streaked with red, 

 the flesh soft : nutlets 3-5, about 6 mm long, the lateral surfaces 

 nearly plane: hypostyle about 4 mm long. 



Crataegus meridiana grows in sandy oak woods at Ozark, Alabama (type 

 locality) . 



The original .specimens, which are deposited in the Biltmore Herbarium, 

 represent both flowers {H4114) and fruit (Iljooy) from the same tree. 



