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and will never be good specimens again. This severe cutting 
back was also necessary in T. occidentalis pyramidalis, T. occi- 
dentalis aurea, and T. occidentalis plicata. More than thirty 
plants in the arbor vitae hedge along Washington Avenue, near the 
laboratory building, had to be replaced this spring. Dust and 
smoke may, however, have something to do with the loss in this 
hedge. A surprising survival, near the arbor vitae collection, is 
Torreya nucifera from the southern islands of Japan. Always 
doubtfully hardy in this latitude, both our plants of this species, 
which have been here since 1911, are doing splendidly. The 
same is true of Ephedra distachya and Taxodium distichum. Of 
all the yew collection only Taxus baccata hibernica is dead, the 
rest apparently coming off scathless. 
The most serious individual losses are two fine specimens of 
Sciadopitys verticillata, both from the Lowell M. Palmer collec- 
tion, and grown here since 1911. One is dead and the other is 
making only feeble recovery. Near here are large plants of 
Pseudolarix Kaempferi, from Japan, a deciduous conifer which 
has proved perfectly hardy. Fortunately, none of the recent 
conifer collections from China, most of them as yet small plants, 
have been planted out in the collections, and were carried through 
safely in pits or other protected places. 
The beautiful horticultural retinosporas, belonging to the genus 
Chamaecyparis, suffered heavily. The following were all cut 
back from splendid specimen plants averaging six to eight feet to 
small fragments scarcely a foot high: C. obtusa, C. Veitchu, C. 
Lawsoniana, C. pisifera squarrosa, and C. pisifera plumosa aurea. 
Somewhat less severely winter-killed was C. obtusa nana and C. 
lycopodioides, while C. nutkatensis glauca and C. nutkatensis 
glauca pendula are none the worse. All of this collection came 
from the Lowell M. Palmer estate, and has been at the Garden 
ever since it started. 
The percentage of plants killed among the firs is great: Abies 
Fraseri, A. arizonica, A. grandis, A. subalpina, A. Pinsapo, A. 
magnifica, A. Appolinis, and A. cilicica being among the number. 
Many of these were in duplicate or triplicate, and a good many 
of them have been here since the early days of the Garden. 
Abies numidica is badly winter-killed, but appears to be growing 
