Distribution. Dry woods in the neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri; in eastern Kansas.
XI. ROTUNDIFOLIÆ.
Coccineæ Sarg.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Stamens 10; leaves coriaceous. Leaves elliptic or obovate; fruit subglobose, dark crimson; anthers pale yellow.109. [C. rotundifolia] (A). Leaves elliptic or ovate; fruit short-oblong to oblong-obovoid, bright carmine-red; anthers rose color.110. [C. Jonesæ] (A). Stamens 20; leaves subcoriaceous, rhombic to oblong-obovate; fruit short-oblong to subglobose, dark dull red or rusty orange-red; anthers pale yellow.111. [C. Margaretta] (A, C).
109. [Cratægus rotundifolia] Moen.
Cratægus coccinea var. rotundifolia Sarg.
Leaves elliptic or obovate, acute or acuminate, gradually narrowed from above the middle to the cuneate entire base, finely and often doubly serrate above with incurved or straight teeth tipped with minute dark glands, and divided above the middle into several short acute lateral lobes, about half grown when the flowers open at the end of May, and then thin, light yellow-green and glabrous, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green, smooth and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, 1½′—2′ long, and 1′—1½′ wide, with a thin midrib, and 4 or 5 pairs of primary veins extending to the point of the lobes; petioles slender, glandular, slightly winged at apex, glabrous, often dark red toward the base, ¾′—1′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots oblong-ovate, oval or often nearly orbicular, more deeply lobed, and frequently 2½′—3′ long and wide. Flowers ½′—¾′ in diameter, on slender pedicels, in broad loose many-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acute, coarsely glandular-serrate, glabrous, often bright red toward the apex; stamens 10; anthers small, pale yellow; styles 3 or 4. Fruit ripening and falling late in October, on short stout pedicels, in drooping many-fruited glabrous clusters, subglobose but occasionally rather longer than broad, dark crimson, marked by scattered dark dots, about ½′ in diameter; calyx enlarged, conspicuous, the lobes bright red on the upper side toward the base, wide-spreading or erect; flesh thin, yellow, dry and sweet; nutlets 3 or 4, rounded at the ends, about ¼′ long.
A bushy tree, occasionally 20° high, with a short trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, covered with dark red-brown scaly bark, stout ascending branches forming a broad round-topped symmetrical head, and slender glabrous branchlets light green when they first appear, bright red-brown and lustrous during their first year, and ultimately ashy gray, and armed with many stout straight or slightly curved chestnut-brown shining spines 1′—1½′ long.