A tree, rarely more than 15° high, with a straight trunk 5′—6′ in diameter, covered with thin bark separating into papery lustrous pale scales, stout branches forming a broad open irregular head, and slender glabrous branchlets bright chestnut-brown during their first season, becoming ashy gray the following year, and armed with many thick straight or curved bright chestnut-brown or red-brown spines 1′—1½′ long.
Distribution. Low hills and limestone ridges; western and southern Vermont; southern Connecticut (rocky shore of Alewive Creek, Waterford, New London County), and eastern and central New York (Whitesboro, Oneida County).
64. [Cratægus lucorum] Sarg.
Leaves broad-ovate to obovate or rarely oval, broad-cuneate or rounded at the entire base, coarsely serrate above with straight teeth tipped with large persistent bright red glands, and deeply divided above the middle into 3 or 4 pairs of wide acute or acuminate lobes, rather more than a third grown when the flowers open early in May and then light yellow-bronze color, covered on the upper surface with short soft pale hairs and glabrous on the lower surface, and at maturity membranaceous, smooth, dark dull green and glabrous above, pale yellow-green below, about 2′ long and 1¼′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib, and 3 or 4 pairs of thin primary veins extending obliquely to the point of the lobes; petioles slender, glandular, often somewhat winged toward the apex, 1′—1½′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots usually ovate and rounded at the broad base, more deeply lobed, and sometimes 3′ long and broad. Flowers ¾′ in diameter, on thin pedicels, in narrow compact few-flowered small villose corymbs; calyx broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes narrow, acuminate, coarsely glandular-serrate, villose on the inner surface; stamens 20; anthers small, dark purple; styles 4 or 5. Fruit ripening about the middle of September and soon falling, on short stout pedicels, in erect few-fruited slightly villose clusters, obovoid until nearly fully grown and then short-oblong or somewhat obovoid, full and rounded at the ends, crimson, lustrous, marked by small pale dots, ½′—⅝′ long; calyx enlarged, the lobes elongated, coarsely glandular-serrate, villose above, closely appressed, often deciduous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 4 or 5, thin, rounded, and sometimes obscurely ridged on the back, about ¼′ long.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a tall straight trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, covered with close dark red-brown bark, slender ascending branches forming a narrow open head, and thin branchlets dark green and somewhat villose when they first appear, becoming dull orange-brown in their first summer and ultimately dark gray-brown, and armed with straight or slightly curved bright red-brown lustrous spines 1′—1½′ long.
Distribution. Rich moist soil along the margins of Oak-groves on the banks of sloughs; Barrington, Cook County, Illinois; near Ithaca, Thompkins County, New York.
65. [Cratægus lacera] Sarg.
Leaves rhombic to broad-ovate or rarely obovate, acute at apex, broadly cuneate and entire at base, coarsely often doubly serrate above with straight glandular teeth, and divided above the middle into numerous acute lobes, when they unfold coated below with thick hoary tomentum and villose above, nearly fully grown when the flowers open about the 20th of April and then glabrous on the lower surface and covered on the upper surface with short scattered pale hairs, and at maturity glabrous, light yellow-green, paler below than above, thin, about 1½′ long and 1¼′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib and few remote primary veins; petioles slender, villose, becoming glabrous or puberulous, slightly winged at the apex, often red toward the base, ¼′—⅓′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots broad-ovate, often deeply 3-lobed, coarsely serrate, 3′—4′ long and broad. Flowers ¾′ in diameter, on slender villose pedicels, in sparingly villose few-flowered corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes linear-lanceolate, elongated, coarsely glandular-serrate, glabrous on the outer surface, villose on the inner surface; stamens 20; anthers small, rose color; styles 4 or 5. Fruit ripening toward the end of October, on short stout glabrous pedicels, in erect few-fruited clusters, ellipsoidal, rounded at the ends, bright cherry-red, lustrous, marked by occasional large dark dots, about ½′ long; calyx only slightly enlarged, with small nearly triangular villose spreading lobes mostly deciduous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, orange color; nutlets 3—5, thin, narrowed at the ends, only slightly ridged on the rounded back, 5/16′ long.