XIII. PULCHERRIMÆ.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Leaves oval to ovate or nearly orbicular, their lobes acute or rounded; fruit bright red.116. [C. opima] (C). Leaves ovate to oval or obovate, their lobes acute; fruit orange-red.117. [C. robur] (C).
116. [Cratægus opima] Beadl.
Leaves oval to ovate or nearly orbicular, acute, gradually or abruptly narrowed and cuneate at the entire base, finely serrate above with incurved teeth, and usually divided above the middle into short acute, acuminate or rounded lobes, half grown when the flowers open the middle of April, and then glabrous with the exception of a few short caducous hairs on the midrib and veins, and at maturity light green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 1½′ long, and 1¼′ wide, with a slender midrib, and 5 or 6 pairs of arcuate primary veins spreading to the point of the lobes; petioles narrowly winged at the apex, usually about ¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots sometimes rounded or nearly truncate at base and 1½′—2½′ long and broad. Flowers about ⅔′ in diameter, on short slender pedicels, in compact few-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acute, entire or sparingly glandular-serrate, tipped with dark red glands, glabrous on the outer surface, puberulous on the inner surface; stamens 20; anthers dark rose color; styles 3—5, surrounded at base by a narrow ring of snowy white tomentum. Fruit ripening about the 1st of October and then remaining on the branches for several weeks, on short stout pedicels, in compact few-fruited erect or drooping clusters, subglobose, often rather longer than broad, bright red, about ¼′ in diameter; calyx prominent, with a well-developed tube, and much enlarged closely appressed lobes often deciduous with the tube before the fruit becomes entirely ripe; flesh thin, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 3—5, thin, ⅛′ long.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a tall, slender often spiny trunk covered with ashy gray bark nearly black at the base of old trees, spreading and ascending branches forming a rounded or oval usually open head, and thin nearly straight bright red-brown glabrous branchlets becoming gray tinged with red or brown in their second season, and armed with thin nearly straight bright chestnut-brown lustrous spines, 1′—1½′ long.
Distribution. Open woods in clay soil in the neighborhood of Greenville, Butler County, Alabama; common near Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida.
117. [Cratægus robur] Beadl.
Leaves ovate, oval or obovate, acute or acuminate, entire or sparingly glandular below, finely serrate above with incurved glandular teeth, and incisely lobed above the middle with numerous short acute lobes, nearly fully grown when the flowers open at the end of March, and then membranaceous and dark yellow-green and lustrous, and at maturity yellow-green, 1½′—2′ long, and 1′—1½′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib, and thin primary veins extending very obliquely to the point of the lobes; turning in the autumn orange, yellow, or brown; petioles slender, slightly wing-margined toward the apex, sparingly glandular, ½′—1′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots broadly ovate, cuneate or nearly truncate at the wide base, deeply divided into broad lateral lobes, often 2′—3′ long and broad, with a stout broadly winged petiole frequently 1′ long. Flowers 1⅛′—1¼′ in diameter, on long slender pedicels, in 5—10-flowered glabrous corymbs, with large conspicuously glandular bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, glabrous, entire or sparingly serrate; stamens 20; anthers pale rose color; styles 3—5, surrounded at base by a narrow ring of pale hairs. Fruit ripening in September and October, on elongated, slender pedicels, in few-fruited drooping clusters, subglobose, orange-red, about ½′ in diameter; calyx-lobes deciduous before the maturity of the fruit leaving a narrow ring round the shallow cavity; flesh thin and firm; nutlets 3—5, broad, rounded at the ends, barely grooved on the rounded back, 3/16′ long and nearly as broad.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a trunk 4′—6′ in diameter, covered with gray or brown scaly bark, spreading or ascending branches, and slender red-brown branchlets unarmed or armed with stout spines ¾′—1′ long; more often a large much-branched shrub, with one or more stems.
Distribution. Woods and borders of fields, northwestern Florida; common in the neighborhood of Tallahassee, Leon County.