SPRING-FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 189 



gardens of China and Japan are a number of varieties 

 with large and double flowers, in white, pink, rose- 

 red, and bizarre and strikingly handsome. From 

 time to time these have been introduced into our gar- 

 dens, yet one rarely meets with them, beautiful 

 though they are. The explanation is that, like the 

 parent stock, they are short-lived trees; but they are 

 readily renewed by budding or grafting and our nur- 

 serymen ought to be able to keep our gardens supplied. 

 In addition to the common Peach two other 

 species grow wild in China. One of these (P. 

 Davidiana) is confined to the northern parts of that 

 country and in the Arnold Arboretum it is the first 

 of its class to blossom. Often the flowers get dam- 

 aged by frosts in the changeable climate of New Eng- 

 land. The tree is of slender growth with thin as- 

 cending-spreading branches, and there are two forms, 

 one with white and another with pink blossoms. 

 The other species (P. mirct) is a new discovery which 

 I made in 1910, on the Chino-Thibetan borderland. 

 The flowers are unknown to me but probably re- 

 semble those of the common Peach. This new species 

 is remarkable in having a very small, flattened-oval 

 and perfectly smooth stone; its value, if any, as a 

 new fruit has yet to be made known, but for the 

 hybridist it certainly has attractions. 



