heavy mats. Its small round deep green leaves are crowed on 
the stems; its dark red acrid berries are liked by birds. 
Potentilla tridentata has glossy green three-compounded 
leaflets forming a thick mass, that bronzes with cold weather. 
Helianthemum Chamaecistus (Kock Kose) grows in procumbent 
dark green mats less than a foot high, the dull green leaves 
persisting all winter. Caluna vulgaris, in straggling mats with 
occasional tufts, has an attractive winter color that is enlivened 
by gray-white flower buds already formed for the spring. It 
likes a sandy soil. 
In so brief a paper the more usual shrubs have been pur- 
posely omitted — the Witch Hazels, native and Chinese, Benzoin, r 
Bayberry, Corylus, Viburnum, and the large group of Cotoneas- 
ters, of which C. Horizontals is so desirable. Nor have any 
Craetagus, Malus, or the Roses with their brilliant fruit, been 
touched upon. Those mentioned have all been seen this fall, 
and can be obtained from Andorra, Andrews, Hicks, The 
Eastern Nurseries, Kelsey or The Elm City Nursery. 
Mary Helen Wingate Lloyd. 
Special Plant Societies. 
The American Iris Society was organized January, 1920, to American 
promote the culture and improvement of Iris by exhibitions, Iris 
lectures, published notes and reports, the establishment of trial Society 
and show plantings, and by creating a central authoritative 
bureau of information on all questions of Iris interest. Anyone 
interested in Iris is eligible to membership upon payment of the 
$3.00 annual dues, or $25.00 life membership. Besides the 
Bulletins of the year, members are also entitled to the 
publication The Flower Grower for the year, in which many 
items of current interest to the Society appear, and all the 
reports of the officers. A member is entitled to share in the 
transaction of business, to receive notice of and attend all meet- 
ings, to exhibit at any show held under the auspices of the 
Society, to make use of the library and to receive all publications 
of the Society. 
Commenting editorially in The Garden Magazine on this 
recently organized Society, Mr. Leonard Barron said in effect 
(I quote from memory) that though he had officiated at the 
birth of several Plant Societies, this last was the lustiest infant 
of them all, and referred to the enthusiasm of the members. 
Among them are hesitant beginners, garden lovers of wide 
experience, commercial growers and connoisseurs. 
Among the important activities are the carefully planned 
trial and show gardens started at the Bronx Botanical Gardens, 
New York, at Ithaca in connection with Cornell University, and 
for the Japanese Iris at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Brooklyn, 
167 
