The National Arboretum 



405 



of horticultural but not taxonomic 

 rank, but as well all clonal material of 

 hybrid or other origin. No attempt will 

 be made to maintain varietal collec- 

 tions of the cultivated fruits and nuts 

 that are maintained better elsewhere. 



Because of the somewhat restricted 

 area available for planting, it has been 

 decided (1) that, because the Park 

 system of the District contains larger 

 acreages that must be kept to native 

 trees, the Arboretum may turn its 

 major attention to exotics; (2) that 

 the arrangement of flowering and other 

 materials shall be such as to throw sea- 

 sonal emphasis on different parts of 

 the Arboretum; and (3) that the plant- 

 ing plans shall depend for their major 

 success on those species known to 

 thrive in this area, with the less 

 beautiful and those of dubious hardi- 

 ness placed in secondary relationships. 



In the permanent plantings that 

 have been established, only the large 

 azalea collection approaches the state 

 of effective display. This, however, is 

 still in progress, with certain altera- 

 tions contemplated in the setting of the 

 evergreen azaleas and additions to the 

 collections of the deciduous species. 



In contrast, the collections of mag- 

 nolias and hollies and that of crab 

 apples give no suggestion of what the 

 effects will be, even in 10 years. The 

 flank of Hickey Ridge, sloping to the 

 south, gives a wonderful opportunity 

 for their display, with the evergreen 

 hollies and the evergreen magnolias 

 the distinctive setting for the oriental 

 magnolias that flower before their 

 leaves, and the dark grassy meadow 

 at the lowest level the finest base for 

 the spring-flowering crab apples. 



For the minor beauties to be found 

 in the collections of the Leguminosae, 

 little need be said, save that most visi- 

 tors are surprised at the diversity of 

 the redbuds. The maple collection is 

 equally modest in its appeal, but some 

 day we hope will boast a small grove 

 of Acer griseum, the Chinese species 

 with yellow bark that peels off easily. 



The conifers that thoroughly enjoy 

 our climate are not too many, but 



with major emphasis laid upon the 

 juniper, the true cedars, the pines, the 

 hemlocks, the yews, and their close 

 relatives, one may gloss over the firs 

 and spruces, most of them homesick 

 for their mountains. 



Whether or not the Metasequoia 

 glyptostroboides, recently introduced 

 into cultivation and represented in the 

 Arboretum by several hundred seed- 

 lings, still in a cold greenhouse, will 

 accept an outdoor site remains to be 

 proved, but there is evidence that the 

 lacebark pine, named for the famous 

 botanist-collector, Bunge, will some 

 day give us a fine grove with its syca- 

 more-white trunks supporting dark- 

 green, needle-covered crowns, not to 

 be matched elsewhere. 



There will be a small valley, looking 

 down from Hickey Ridge, covered 

 with cryptomerias. In their earliest 

 years they will recall some reforested 

 slope in Japan. Two hundred years 

 from now, the visitor will gasp at their 

 huge trunks as the visitor to Nikko may 

 today. Nearby a flat-topped valley will 

 show off the cedars from Mount Atlas, 

 the Lebanon, and North India, with 

 a thought perhaps for Kipling as one 

 looks at the Deodars. Beyond these 

 another valley for the other Indian 

 pine, dedicated to Griffiths, another 

 indefatigable botanist-collector, with 

 its long, drooping needles colored like 

 those of our own white pine, largely 

 planted over the crown of the ridge. 



These are all details. To name the 

 600,000 sheets of herbarium specimens 

 and the 2,000 living species and forms 

 is a dull business and pointless, for 

 tomorrow and each succeeding year 

 there will be more. 



What one finds or learns at this 

 place, as in any other collection, will 

 depend entirely upon the visitor. No 

 one will ask or expect the impossible. 



B. Y. MORRISON is head of the Di- 

 vision of Plant Exploration and Intro- 

 duction, Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, 

 Beltsville, and acting director of the 

 National Arboretum. 



