The illustrator of this plate, C. E. Faxon, seems to have gone all out to show details of the growth habit of this particular hawthorn. I think it would take seven or eight photos, minimum, to capture them all. I wonder why he lavished more detail on this one than on other hawthorns in this series of drawings. I found a little information about him online, and see that his illustration art continues to sell to this day.

Elizabeth, if you look at some books or websites on botanical illustration, you'll discover an amazing array of detailed drawings like that. In the days before photography botanists traveled all over the world (mostly from Europe) to bring back documentation of foreign and exotic plants—they couldn't transport the actual plants on long sea voyages. Many of these drawing were done in the field and the detail is breathtaking. The drawings in the 18th century enabled Carolus Linnaeus to further his development of the binomial naming system we use today, but the art form itself dates back centuries before that (to the ancient Greeks, if I'm not mistaken).

There is a two-minute video a ways down in this link you might enjoy.

https://www.botanicalartandart...

I think Faxon's illustrations from 1902 (vol. 13) are generally a bit more streamlined than his earlier drawings from 1892 (vol.4), but if this seems more detailed than others from 1892, it's possible that he was more familiar with this particular plant—perhaps this was one of the few hawthorns growing in his garden or vicinity? I'm just spitballing here, obviously...

Virginia