V. PRUINOSÆ.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Stamens 20. Anthers rose color. Leaves elliptic; fruit subglobose, green and pruinose when fully grown, becoming dark purple-red and very lustrous; anthers large, deep rose color.54. [C. pruinosa] (A, C). Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate; fruit short-oblong, dull russet-green; anthers small, light rose color.55. [C. georgiana] (C). Anthers white; leaves ovate, acute, cordate at base; fruit broader than high, scarlet, pruinose, becoming lustrous.56. [C. callicarpa] (A). Stamens 10; anthers dark rose color; leaves broad-ovate, acuminate; fruit subglobose, green more or less tinged with red, pruinose.57. [C. disjuncta] (A).
54. [Cratægus pruinosa] K. Koch.
Leaves elliptic, acute, broadly or acutely cuneate at the entire base, irregularly and often doubly serrate above with glandular straight or incurved teeth, and divided in 3 or 4 pairs of short acute or acuminate lateral lobes, when they unfold bright red and glabrous with the exception of a few short caducous hairs on the upper side of the base of the midrib, nearly fully grown when the flowers open from the middle to the end of May and then membranaceous and bluish green, and at maturity subcoriaceous, dark blue-green and often glaucous above, pale below, 1′—1½′ long, and ¾′—1′ wide, with a slender midrib, and 3 or 4 pairs of thin primary veins running to the point of the lobes; late in the autumn turning dull orange color; petioles slender, glandular, slightly winged at the apex, often bright red in early spring and in the autumn, 1′—1½′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots broad-ovate, often rounded at base, more coarsely serrate and more deeply lobed, frequently 2½′ long and wide, with stouter and more broadly winged petioles. Flowers ¾′—1′ in diameter, on long slender pedicels, in few-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes gradually narrowed from a wide base, long-pointed, finely glandular-serrate below the middle; stamens 20; anthers large, deep rose color; styles 5, surrounded at base by a thick ring of hoary tomentum. Fruit on long thin light green ultimately bright red pedicels, in few-fruited drooping clusters, 5-angled, apple green and covered with a glaucous bloom until nearly fully ripe, at maturity late in October subglobose but rather broader than high, barely angled, ½′—⅝′ in diameter, dark purple-red, marked by many small dull dots, very lustrous; calyx prominent, with a long well-developed tube, and enlarged usually erect lobes often deciduous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, light yellow; nutlets 5, light-colored, acute at apex, narrowed and rounded at base, deeply grooved on the back, ¼′ long.
A tree, 15°—20° high, with a stem a few inches in diameter, spreading horizontal branches forming a broad open irregular head, and slender glabrous branchlets bright chestnut-brown during their first season, later becoming dark reddish brown, and armed with numerous stout straight light chestnut-brown spines 1′—1½′ long; often shrubby, with several intricately branched stems.
Distribution. Slopes of low hills often in limestone soil; southwestern Vermont, westward through New York to southern Ontario (neighborhood of Toronto), and through Ohio and Indiana to central and northern Illinois, and southward through eastern Pennsylvania to northern Delaware.
55. [Cratægus georgiana] Sarg.
