=Inflorescence.=--May to June. In cymes from the season's growth; flowers white, 3/4 inch broad, ill-smelling; calyx lobes 5, often incised, pubescent; petals roundish; stamens indefinite, styles 3-5; flower stems pubescent; bracts glandular. =Fruit.=--A drupe-like pome, 1/2-1 inch long, bright scarlet, larger than the fruit of the other New England species; ripens and falls in September. =Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England. An attractive and useful tree in low plantations; rarely for sale by nurserymen or collectors; propagated from the seed. [Illustration: PLATE LX.--Crataegus mollis.] 1. Winter buds. 2. Branch with thorns. 3. Flowering branch. 4. Flower with part of perianth and stamens removed. 5. Fruiting branch. =Note.=--The New England plants here put under the head of _Crataegus mollis_ have been referred by Prof. C. S. Sargent to _Crataegus submollis_ (_Bot. Gaz_., XXXI, 7, 1901). The new species differs from the true _Crataegus mollis_ in its smaller ovate leaves with cuneate base and more or less winged leafstalk, in the smaller number of its stamens, usually 10, and in its pear-shaped orange-red fruit, which drops in early September. It is also probable that _C. Arnoldiana_, Sargent, new species, has been collected in Massachusetts as _C. mollis_. It differs from _C. submollis_ "in its broader, darker green, more villose leaves which are usually rounded, not cuneate at the base, in its smaller flowers, subglobose, not oblong or pear-shaped, crimson fruit with smaller spreading calyx lobes, borne on shorter peduncles and ripening two or three weeks earlier, and by its much more zigzag and more spiny branches, which make this tree particularly noticeable in winter, when it may readily be recognized from all other thorn trees."--C. S. Sargent in _Bot. Gaz._, XXXI, 223, 1901. DRUPACEAE. PLUM FAMILY. Trees or shrubs; bark exuding gum; bark, leaves, and especially seeds of several species abounding in prussic acid; leaves simple, alternate, mostly serrate; stipules small, soon falling; leafstalk often with one to several glands; flowers in umbels, racemes, or solitary, regular; calyx tube free from the ovary, 5-lobed; petals 5, inserted on the calyx; stamens indefinite, distinct, inserted with the petals; pistil 1, ovary with 1 carpel, 1-seeded; fruit a more or less fleshy drupe. =Prunus nigra, Ait.= _Prunus Americana_, var. _nigra, Waugh._ WILD PLUM. RED PLUM. HORSE PLUM. CANADA PLUM. =Habitat and Range.=--Native along streams and in thickets, often spontaneous around dwellings and along fences. From Newfoundland through the valley of the St. Lawrence to Lake Manitoba. Maine,--abundant in the northern sections and common throughout; New Hampshire and Vermont,--frequent, especially in the northern sections; Massachusetts,--occasional; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--not reported.