12 



HORTICULTURE 



July 3, 1920 



ARBORETUM NOTES. 

 Tree Lilacs. 



The Lilac season closes with the 

 flowering of these eastern Asiatic spe- 

 cies which are popularly known as 

 "Tree Lilacs." They all have hand- 

 some dark green leaves which fall in 

 the autumn without change of color, 

 and large usually unsymmetrical clus- 

 ters of white flowers with the disagree- 

 able odor of the flowers of the Privet. 

 They are handsome and hardy plants 

 and when in bloom the most conspicu- 

 ous of the trees or large arborescent 

 shrubs of their season. This year, the 

 three species promise an unusually 

 abundant bloom. The first of these 

 plants to flower. Syringa amurensis. is 

 a native of eastern Siberia, and a shrub 

 twelve or fifteen feet high, with dark- 

 colored bark, leaves pale on the lo\*- 

 er surface, and short unsymmetrical 

 flower-clusters which usually are pro- 

 duced only on alternate years. Syringa 

 pekinensis blooms soon after S. amu- 

 rensis. It is a native of northern China 

 and a shrub sometimes thirty feet tall 

 and broad, with stout spreading stems 

 covered with yellow-brown bark sepa- 

 rating into thin plate-like scales like 

 that of some Birch trees, narrow, long- 

 pointed leaves, and short, unsymmetri- 

 cal flower-clusters, usually in pairs. 

 This species retains its leaves later in 

 the autumn than the other "Tree Li- 

 lacs," and it flowers profusely every 

 year. The last of these plants to 

 flower, Syringa japonica, is a native 

 of northern Japan and a tree some- 

 times forty feet high, with a tall 

 straight trunk covered with lustrous 

 brown bark like that of a Cherry tree, 

 a round-topped head of erect branches, 

 broad thick leaves and mostly sym- 

 metrical flower-clusters often eighteen 

 inches in length. This tree rarely 

 flowers except in alternate years. 



Berberis Vernae. 

 Gardeners often complain that there 

 are now too many Barberries, and it is 

 certainly true that only an expert who 

 has devoted years of special study to 

 the genus can readily distinguish all 

 the species, varieties and hybrids In 

 the groups of which Berberis vulgaris, 

 the common Barberry of western Eu- 

 rope, and now naturalized in the north- 

 eastern United States, is a typical 

 plant. There are now probably at 

 least one hundred different Barberries 

 In the Arboretum Collection and the 

 number is likely to increase rather 

 than to decrease, for Barberries hy- 

 bridize easily in collections like the 

 one in the Arboretum, and it is more 

 than probable that China, the head- 

 quarters of the genus, may still con- 

 tain undescribed species. There may 

 be too many Barberries but no one 



Time to Sow Pansies 



This mixture coniprisfs a jrreat variety 

 Ol., $10.00; V, oz., $3.00; Vs oz., $1.50 



oz.. $1.50; % oz., ¥0.86 



FARQUHAR'S FINEST SHOW STR.4IN 



of colors; flowers of largest size. 

 SPECIAL MIXTURE. Extensively used by the Florists, 



Oz., $5.(Kt; 

 OIANT OR TRIMARDEAU. 



CORNFLOWER BLCE. Ultramarine — Blue. 



QUEEN OF THE BLUES. Lavender. 



GOLDEN GEM. Pure Yellow. 



SNOW QUEEN. Pure white. 



GOLDEN TELLOW, DARK EYE. 



LORD BEIACONSFIELD. Violet, upper petals shading to white. 



MIXED. 



Each of the above, Oz, $4.00; '4 oz.. $1.26 



R. & J. FARQUHAR COMPANY 



6 South Market Street, BOSTON, MASS. 



STUMPP & WAITER CO. 



Seeds and Bulbs 



30-32 Barclay Street 

 NEW YORK CITY 



Bolgiano's "Big Crop" Ms 



"TESTED AUD TBC8TKD" OVBB A 

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gpeeial Price List to FloTl»t» and Market 

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BAL.TIHOBB, UAXTL-AITD 



EVERYTHING IN CUTTINGS AND 



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MAGIC HOSE SEEDS AND BULBS 



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IROMAN J. IRWIN 



IMPOBTEB 



43 West I8fh Street NEW YORK 



who has once seen Berberis Vernae 

 as it is now growing in the Arboretum 

 will regret that Wilson, who discov- 

 ered this plant in China, sent seeds to 

 the Arboretum in 1910 from the neigh- 

 borhood of Sungtan in the upper Min 

 V.Tlley where he found it at an alti- 

 tude of about nine thousand feet above 

 sea level, growing with the other 

 Chinese Barberries. B. Vernae is here 

 now about six feet tall and nearly as 

 much in diameter. The long, slender, 

 bright red branches covered with 

 small, nearly entire leaves arch and 

 droop gracefully, and from them hang 

 on long stems innumerable slender 

 clusters of small, pale yellow, slightly 

 fragrant flowers which in the autumn 

 are followed by small red fruits. A 

 green fountain best describes this 

 shrub. There are Barberries with 

 larger and handsomer leaves, larger 

 flowers and more brilliant fruit, but 

 there is not one in this collection, at 



GARDEN SEED 



BBBT, CARROT, PABSNIP, RADISH imA 

 SARDBN PEA Sam) In Tarlcty ; also tthn 

 ItoiDi of the short crop ef this psst season 

 as well as a fall Has of Oardsn B«eds, will 

 b* QDOted yea npoa appUcatloa t» 



S. D. WOODRUFF & SONS 



U Der St . NEW YORK and ORANGE CONN. 



SEEDS, BU16S. PLANTS 



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least, of such graceful habit; and Ber- 

 beris Vernae as it grows here is not 

 only one of the most beautiful of the 

 deciduous-leaved species of the genus 

 but one of the handsomest of the 

 shrubs discovered in China during the 

 present century which can be success- 

 fully grown in this climate. Plants of 

 Berberis Vernae raised from seed col- 

 lected by William Purdom in Min-chou 

 in western Kansu. received at the Ar- 

 Voretum in 1912. are also well estab- 

 lished here. 



Neillia sinensis, uninjured by the se- 

 vere winter, has been as beautiful as 

 usual this year. The flowers are 

 cylindric, clear pale pink, nearly halt 

 an inch long and are pendent on slen- 

 der stems in long one-sided racemes 

 terminal on short lateral branchlets, 

 and do not open until the dark green 

 leaves have grown to nearly their full 

 size. This is one of the Chinese shrubs 

 which seems destined to become popu- 



