A 
120 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
petals but the colored bracts. The flower itself is the rather 
insignificant part at the center of the four white bracts. 
This is a beautiful plant for spring bloom, the flowers ap- 
pearing before the leaves. 
Crataegus.—These trees, commonly known as thorn trees 
or red haws, are valuable in the garden for their dark green 
foliage, their white or red flowers, and their bright red fruits 
of late summer. They belong to the rose family and like 
the apple, pear, and plum are profuse bloomers. They are 
covered with thorns which protect them from animal injury, 
but are breeders of the so-called scale insects, and unless care- 
fully watched and protected against scale by spraying they 
will soon become so much damaged that removal is necessary. 
However, these trees are well worth while and should be in- 
cluded in the background of all shrubbery borders. They 
are found growing wild over the State and are perfectly 
adaptable to all local weather conditions. The same may be 
said of the cercis and the cornus. 
Halesia or the Silverbell-tree.—This tree is always a — 
a Sete and is much admired for the pure white pendant 
lls of flowers that almost precede the foliage in spring. In 
habit and size it compares well with cercis, cornus, and 
chionanthus, and all of these may be included in the general 
background of the shrubbery borders. 
Koelreuteria paniculata.—This is known also as the var- 
nish-tree and is a tree of charming habit and beautiful ap- 
oo but unfortunately not well known about St. Louis. 
ike the maidenhair tree, it is a native of China but seems 
to take well to our climate. When the trees are given room 
in which to develop they make splendid, rounded speci- 
mens with branches clear to the ground, and might be mis- 
taken for the native hornbeams or beeches. Moreover, in 
addition to their good foliage, they possess at flowering time 
in July, large panicles of showy, yellowish flowers, that are 
almost immediately followed by the bladder-like seed vessels. 
Specimen trees have a smooth grayish bark like the beeches 
and rather light green foliage, in the open developing a 
St. Louis. The flowers are combinations of green and orange, 
