May 11. 1918 



HORTICULTURE 



Springtime Roadsides 



Along till' Wiiniliaml Knicik .liisr as the Snow is Disappearins 



Everybody has grown accustomed to the automobile 

 and in fact feels it indispensable. Doubtless a good 

 many persons are cognizant of the fact, however, that 

 there is no gain without some loss. In early spring 

 time, especially while the country roads are in poor con- 

 dition, the man who rides in an automobile sees the 

 poorest part of the landscape. Back along the country 

 roads and in the woods the trilliums, mayflowers, violets 

 and spring beauties are coming out, but along the state 

 roads we very seldom see such choice gifts of nature. 



The (.'ountry Koa.l in Kai-ly SpriiiBt iiii>' \V1iit>' thf .\iitonioliiles 

 'lo not venture 



Everyone who is a botanist or has any love for Howers 

 ouglit to leave the uitomobile occasionally at home and 

 take a tramp, especially at this time of the year, along 

 tlie back lanes, the brook-sides and into the deepest 

 woods. We are all of us in danger of forgetting the 

 sciurce of our inspiration and our garden materials. 



Amherst, Mass. 



rrhou<^JtM'^^^^>-^U^ 



'-5 J 



ARNOLD ARBORETUM BULLETIN. 

 The Winter Damage. 

 The winter of 1917-lS has been one 

 of the severest in New England of 

 which there is any record. In Decem- 

 ber when the ground was without a 

 covering of snow the thermometer did 

 not rise here from above zero for 

 nearly a week with a minimum of 17 

 degrees below. There was little snow 

 at any time during the winter, and the 

 ground, which froze to a depth of from 

 five to seven feet, was not clear of 

 frost until after the first of April, Abun- 

 dant rains late in the summer and in 

 the early autumn, and the fact that the 

 cold has been continuous through the 

 winter, without periods of warm 

 weather, which in this region often ex- 

 cite dangerous vegetable activity, have 

 enabled many plants lo survive the ex- 

 treme cold which under less favorable 

 conditions would probably have de- 

 stroyed them. Still it seems sale to 

 predict that any tree or shrub which 

 has lived here through the past winter 

 will be able to resist successfully a 

 Massachusetts winter. The condition 

 of plants in the Arboretum at this time 

 is of general interest therefore as an 

 indication of th? trees and shrubs of 

 recent Introduction which can bo suc- 

 cessfully grown in this climate. It 

 must, however, be remembered that 

 local conditions, that is conditions of 

 soil, position, moisture and dryness in- 

 fluence the hardiness of plants, and 

 that a tree which succeeds in the Ar- 

 boretum might not be hardy in an- 

 other garden in the same general 

 region. 



The conifers which have been killed 

 are the glaucous-leaved Mt. Atlas Cedar 

 (C'pdrvs atlantica glauca) which has 

 been kept alive here for several years 

 in a protected position; young plants 

 of the Spanish Fir {Abies Pinsapo) 

 which has been killed before in the 

 Arboretum; Abies magnifica of the Cal- 

 ifornia Sierra Nevada; Abies cephalon- 

 ica var. appolinis from the mountains 

 of Greece; Picea Sargentiana, one of 

 the new spruces from western China, 

 and nearly every plant in a large col- 

 lection of the short-leaved pine of the 

 eastern United States {Pinus eehinata). 

 These pines were raised at the Arbor- 

 etum twenty years ago from seeds 

 gathered on Staten Island, New York, 

 the northern limit of the range of this 

 tree, and appeared to be perfectly 

 hardy until this year. On several con- 

 ifers the buds are uninjured and are 

 beginning to swell, although the leaves 

 have been more or less browned by the 

 cold and will soon fall. Conifers in- 

 jured in this way will probably re- 

 cover, although their growth for the 

 year will be necessarily checked. 

 Among the trees with injured leaves 

 and uninjured buds are the Cedars of 

 Lebanon from the Anti-Taurus in Asia 

 Minor which have been growing in the 

 .\rboretum for sixteen years without 

 protection, and which it was hoped 

 would be able to support the worst 

 conditions New England winters could 

 offer. Other conifers with injured 

 leaves are the Sugar Pine {Pinus 

 Lamhertiana) from the Sierra Nevada 

 of California, the Mexican White Pine 

 {Pinus Ai/arahuite), the Chinese Hem- 

 lock {Tsuga chinensis) which has lost 

 most of its top, and Abies cephalonica 

 from the islands of Greece. One or two 



specimens of this tree will probably not 

 recover. The leaves of the California 

 Incense Cedar {Libocedrus decur- 

 rens), of Abies grandis, of Abies am- 

 abalis and of the Hemlock of the north- 

 west coast {Tsuga heterophylla) are 

 slightly injured. The native White 

 Cedar {Chamaecyparis thyoides) Is 

 badly hurt and some of the plants will 

 probably die. The Red Spruce {Picea 

 rubra) from northern New England 

 has suffered badly, as have the plants 

 of the upright form of Juniperus com- 

 munis from central Massachusetts. 

 The leaves of Abies amabiiis. too. from 

 the Cascade Mountains of Oregon are 

 slightly browned, as are those of sev- 

 eral plants of the Japanese Abies 

 sachalinense. On a few of the plants 

 of the Chinese White Pine {Pinus Ar- 

 mandi), of the Japanese Pinu,i densi- 

 flora and P. Thunbergii. and of the 

 Chinese Pinus sinensis var. yunnan- 

 ensis and var. denudata the leaves are 

 also brown. It is interesting that, with 

 the exception of four exotic conifers, 

 three of which have been kept alive in 

 the Arboretum with much difficulty and 

 have now perished, the most serious 

 damage of the winter to conifers has 

 been to four native species, Picea rub- 

 ra. Pinus eehinata. Chamaecyparis 

 thi/oides and Juniperus eomtnunis. All 

 the new spruces and firs from western 

 China, with the exception of Picea 

 Sargentiana. are uninjured, as are 

 ])ractically all the Chinese Pines. Un- 

 injured, too, are the Carolina Hemlock 

 {Tsuga caroliniana) the western Arbor 

 Vitae {Thuya plieata), and the Span- 

 ish Pine {Pinus nigra tenuifolia) 

 which, judging by the climate of the 

 regions where these trees grow natur- 

 ally might well have suffered from the 

 cold of the past winter. 



