128 



BILTMORE BOTANICAL STUDIES 



Crataegus fera n. sp. 



A tree 5-7™ tall with a trunk sometimes 2 dm in diameter, 

 covered with dark gray or brownish scaly bark, the spreading 

 branches often armed with chestnut-brown or gray spines 2-3 cm 

 long : leaves oblong- or obovate-cuneiform, the blades 2.5~5 cm long, 

 i.5-3 cm wide, rounded or obtuse or rarely nearly truncate at the 

 apex, gradually narrowed or sometimes contracted at the base, the 

 borders serrate above the middle j they are dark green, lustrous 

 and slightly scabrous on the upper surface at maturity, pale or 

 whitened beneath and with some persistent pubescence, especially 

 along the midrib, and when young are sparsely coated on both 

 surfaces with short, pale hairs, eventually firm to subcoriaceous 

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

 brown : petioles 5-1 5 mm long, margined, pubescent, at least when 

 young: flowers i2-i5 mm in diameter, opening about the middle 

 of April and when the leaves are almost fully grown ; they are 

 produced in pilose-pubescent, compound, ample corymbs, the 

 lower branches of which are axillary : pedicels and hypanthium 

 pilose-pubescent, or the latter pubescent only at the base : sepals 

 3-4. 5 mm long, entire or serrate, reflexed or spreading after anthe- 

 sis : stamens 16-20, the anthers yellow or cream-color : fruit 

 globose or subglobose, about i cm wide, ripening and falling in 

 September and October, at maturity bright red or scarlet : nutlets 

 mostly 2-3, about 6 mm long, the lateral surfaces nearly plane : 

 hypostyle about 4 mm long. 



Cratcsgus fera grows in low woods of oak and hickory in southern Louisiana. 



The type specimens, which are preserved in the Biltmore Herbarium and 

 consist of flowers (H4130) and fruit [Hjij2) from the same tree, were collected 

 seven miles west of Opelousas. 



Crataegus edura n. sp. 



A tree sometimes 7-8™ tall with a trunk 2 dm in diameter 

 covered with ashy-gray or brownish, scaly bark, the branches 

 sometimes armed with chestnut-brown or gray spines 2>~5 cm l° n g : 

 leaves cuneate or oblong- or obovate-cuneiform, the blades 2.5-6 cm 

 long, i-3 cm wide, mostly rounded or obtuse, but occasionally 

 acute at the apex, cuneate at the base, the borders serrate or 

 crenate-serrate above the middle ; they are glabrate or somewhat 



