Leaves broad-obovate to nearly orbicular, occasionally oval or rhombic, acute and generally short-pointed at apex, gradually narrowed and concave-cuneate or sometimes rounded at the entire base, finely and often doubly serrate with glandular teeth, and frequently irregularly divided above the middle into short acute lobes, nearly fully grown when the flowers open at the end of March or early in April, and then very thin, blue-green, slightly villose, especially on the midrib and veins, and at maturity thin, bright green, glabrous with the exception of a few hairs on the under side of the slender midrib, and thin primary veins extending very obliquely toward the end of the leaf, about 1′ long, and ¾′—⅞′ wide; petioles slender, glandular, wing-margined above, villose early in the season, becoming glabrous, ⅓′—¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots often 1½′—2′ long and wide. Flowers ¾′ in diameter, on long slender hairy pedicels, in simple 1—5-flowered corymbs, with oblanceolate acuminate bright red caducous bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube broadly obconic, sparingly hairy with long pale caducous hairs, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acute, glandular with minute bright red glands, glabrous; stamens 20; anthers small, deep rose color; styles 3—5, surrounded at base by a narrow ring of short pale hairs. Fruit ripening and falling about the middle of September, on slender glabrous pedicels, often only a single fruit in a cluster developing, globose to depressed-globose, bright red, marked by small dark dots, nearly ½′ in diameter; calyx prominent, with enlarged appressed lobes; flesh thin, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 3—5, thick, narrowed and rounded at base, broad and rounded at apex, ridged on the back with a broad low rounded ridge, about 5/16′ long.
A tree, often 20° high, with a tall trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, covered with nearly black deeply furrowed bark broken into short thick closely appressed scales, wide-spreading often pendulous branches forming a broad symmetrical handsome head, and slender slightly zigzag branchlets covered when they first appear with pale caducous hairs, soon becoming bright red-brown and lustrous, and dull reddish brown in their second season, and armed with short nearly straight gray or chestnut-brown spines ⅓′—¾′ long.
Distribution. Dry upland Oak-woods in western Florida from the neighborhood of Tallahassee, Leon County to the Apalachicola River; common in the neighborhood of River Junction, Gadsden County, and at Aspalaga, Liberty County.
124. [Cratægus tristis] Beadl.
Leaves obovate, acute, acuminate, or rounded and often more or less undulate-lobed at the broad apex, gradually narrowed from above the middle and concave-cuneate at the glandular base, and serrate above with blunt glandular teeth, about half grown when the flowers open at the end of April, and then slightly pilose on the upper and villose on the lower surface on the thin midrib and in the axils of the slender veins extending obliquely to the point of the lobes, and at maturity thin and firm in texture, bright green and glabrous, 1¼′—1½′ long, and about ¾′ wide; turning in the autumn yellow, brown, and orange; petioles slender, wing-margined above, conspicuously glandular, slightly puberulous, ½′—¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots oblong-obovate, often deeply and irregularly divided into broad acute lateral lobes, and frequently 1½′—2′ long and nearly as broad. Flowers ⅝′—¾′ in diameter, on slender villose pedicels, in simple 3—5-flowered corymbs, with rose-colored and conspicuously glandular bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube broadly obconic, hairy toward the base with long scattered pale hairs, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acuminate, glandular with large dark red glands, and entire or coarsely serrate above the middle; stamens 20; anthers pink; styles 3—5. Fruit ripening and falling late in August or early in September, ellipsoidal or short-oblong, orange-red, about ½′ long, with soft flesh; calyx little enlarged, with recurved persistent lobes; nutlets 3—5, broad and rounded at base, gradually narrowed and acute at apex, rounded and ridged on the back with a broad low slightly grooved ridge, about 5/16′ long.
A tree, sometimes 25° high, with a trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, covered with dark sometimes nearly black deeply furrowed bark, stout pendulous branches forming a broad shapely handsome head, and slender branchlets hoary-tomentose when they first appear, bright red-brown and puberulous at the end of their first season, becoming dark gray-brown, and armed with few slender straight spines 1¼′—1½′ long; or often a large shrub.
Distribution. Slopes of low hills, northwestern Georgia; common in the neighborhood of Rome, Floyd County.
125. [Cratægus floridana] Sarg.
