A slender tree, 25°—30° high, with a tall trunk 4′—5′ in diameter, covered with pale scaly bark, small short branches forming a narrow head, and slender branchlets dark olive-green and villose when they first appear, becoming light red-brown and glabrous during their first summer, and ultimately dull light gray, and armed with thin straight bright chestnut-brown lustrous spines ¾′—1¾′ long.
Distribution. Low rich forest-glades near Fulton, Hempstead County, Arkansas.
66. [Cratægus depilis] Sarg.
Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate, rounded or broad-cuneate and often unsymmetrical at the entire base, sharply doubly serrate above with straight glandular teeth, and often divided into 4 or 5 pairs of short acute lobes, when they unfold deeply tinged with red and covered above with fine short caducous hairs, nearly half grown when the flowers open during the second week of May, and at maturity membranaceous, glabrous, smooth, yellowish to bluish green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 1½′—2′ long, and 1′—1¼′ wide, with a slender midrib and 5 or 6 pairs of thin primary veins; turning yellowish and brown or russet color in the autumn; petioles slender, glabrous, sparingly glandular with minute glands, ¾′—1′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots often 2½′ long and 1½′ wide. Flowers ¾′ in diameter, on slender pedicels, in broad glabrous 8—12-flowered corymbs, with linear or oblong glandular bracts and bractlets; calyx narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes lanceolate, glandular-serrate, deeply tinged with purple; stamens 20; anthers pale rose color; styles 4 or 5. Fruit ripening early in September and soon falling, on slender pedicels, in drooping few-fruited clusters, subglobose to broad-obovoid, dark red to reddish purple, lustrous, ½′—¾′ long, and ⅜′—⅝′ in diameter; calyx only slightly enlarged, the lobes reflexed, glandular-serrate, and red on the upper side toward the base; flesh thick, yellow, sweet, juicy and slightly acid; nutlets 4 or 5, full and rounded at apex, narrowed and acute at base, and prominently but irregularly ridged on the back with a high sometimes grooved ridge, ¼′—5/16′ long.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a trunk 4′—8′ in diameter and 6°—9° long, covered with dark gray or gray-brown flaky bark, spreading branches forming an oblong or rounded open head, and slender glabrous branchlets bright red-brown and very lustrous during their first summer, becoming light gray-brown the following year, and armed with stout or slender nearly straight spines ¾′—1½′ long.
Distribution. Rich clay or gravelly soil in pastures and on the borders of woods; northeastern Illinois (Lake, Cook and Mill Counties).
67. [Cratægus basilica] Beadl.
Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate, broad-cuneate or rounded at the entire or crenate base, sharply and often doubly serrate above with straight slender glandular teeth, and divided into numerous short acute lateral lobes, more than half grown when the flowers open early in May and then roughened above by short pale hairs and glabrous below, and at maturity thin but firm in texture, bright green and scabrate above, paler below, 2½′—3′ long, and 1½′—2′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib, and thin veins arching to the point of the lobes; turning yellow and brown in the autumn; petioles slender, slightly winged at apex, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers ½′—⅝′ in diameter, on elongated slender pedicels, in 5—15-flowered glabrous compact corymbs; calyx-tube broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes slender, acuminate, glabrous, entire or occasionally serrate; stamens 15—20; anthers dark rose color; styles 3—5. Fruit ripening and falling early in September, on slender pedicels, in few-fruited drooping clusters, subglobose, scarlet, covered with a glaucous bloom, ½′—⅝′ in diameter; flesh soft, sweet, and edible; nutlets 3—5, narrowed and acute at the ends, prominently ridged on the back with a high broadly grooved ridge, ¼′—5/16′ long.