out injury the New England climate. The Indian conifers are not 
hardy in the northern states with the exception of the Himalayan 
White Pine (Pinus excelsa) which is more successful in the middle 
states than it is in New England. It is a handsome and fast-growing 
tree well worth growing wherever it can succeed. 
The Siberian Picea obovata is a hardy and handsome tree in the 
Arboretum, and there is every reason to suppose that this tree may 
prove to be better suited to the interior parts of this country than 
any other Spruce tree. The same may be said of the Spruce of Chinese 
Turkestan (Picea Schenkiana), also well established in the Arboretum. 
Two Caucasian conifers, Picea occidentalis and Abies Nord- 
manniana, are among the handsomest of the conifers which have 
been grown for many years in the eastern states where they are not 
rare. Two conifers of the Balkan Peninsula have proved successful in 
the Arboretum, the White Pine (Pinus peuke) and a Spruce (Picea 
Omorika); the former is not superior as an ornamental tree to the 
western White Pine, but the Balkan Spruce, judging by the oldest 
plants in the Arboretum which were planted in 1881, gives promise 
of being a valuable tree in the northern states. 
Although they have been much planted in the northern states 
in the last seventy-five years, the conifers of central and western 
Europe are not satisfactory trees for eastern America, for although 
they grow rapidly when young they lose their beauty at a com- 
paratively early age and often die, and give Httle promise of becoming 
large or long-lived trees here. This is true of the Norway Spruce and 
the Scotch and Austrian pines. These three trees, although they grow 
very rapidly while young and are popular with nurserymen, have 
already shown that they are not suited to the American climate, and 
native conifers should replace them for general planting. 
Some Winter-flowering Shrubs 
Thanks to the plant-hunting which has been going on with activity 
and success in the last twenty-five years, it is now possible to cultivate 
in regions where the thermometer goes below zero every year a group 
of shrubs which flower during the winter and produce abundant 
flowers for which cold has no terrors. These shrubs are Witch Hazels 
and there are three winter-blooming species, the other species being 
the well known Witch Hazel of our eastern woods which blooms in 
October and November. 
The first of the winter-flowering species to bloom is Hamamelis 
vernaHs. This shrub is a native of southern Missouri and northern 
Arkansas where it grows along the sandy and rocky banks of small 
streams over which it spreads by underground shoots into broad 
