6 
cipal ones have been the Red Maple, Acer riihrum, both with scarlet 
and with yellow flowers and fruit; pallidiflorum, and the common Amer- 
ican Elm, Ulmus americana. The three Silver Poplars, Populus alba 
and P. canescens of Europe and P. tomentosa from northern China, one 
of the handsome and valuable trees introduced by the Arboretum, and 
the common eastern Cottonwood, Populus balsamifera, variety virgin- 
iana, more generally known perhaps Populus deltoidea, have been cov- 
ered with flowers, as have many species of Willows, including a few 
rare species like Salix irrorata, S. Laescadiana, S. stipularis, S. fer- 
ruginea and S. Siegertii. 
More shrubs than trees have flowered in April. The one with the 
most conspicuous flowers has been Magnolia stellata, of which there 
are a number of large and small plants in front of the Administration 
Building. This is an extremely large, round-headed shrub with large 
dark green leaves which, like those of all the Magnolias which flower 
before the leaves appear, fall without change of color. This plant 
rarely ever has produced fruit here, but every autumn it is covered 
with flower-buds. These are never injured during the winter but the 
flowers, which are about four inches in diameter, open so early that 
the numerous loosely arranged petals are usually ruined nine years out 
of ten by a late frost which turns them brown. This year even when 
there have only been the slightest frosts in April the petals have suffered 
somewhat. Very little is known about this plant. By a mistaken de- 
termination it was at first called Burgerea stellata, and it has also been 
called by S. B. Parsons Magnolia Halleana, the name under which it 
is still often cultivated in this country where it is not rare. Although 
this Magnolia was cultivated in Japanese gardens before the days of 
Von Siebold it has not yet been found as a wild plant in Japan, although 
Veitch speaks of it in the “Hortus Veitchiana" as a native of Fuji- 
yama. It was introduced into Europe by Veitch in 1862 from a garden 
in Nagasaki, and the same year it was brought to the United States 
by Dr. George R. Hall and sold by him to the Parsons Nursery at 
Flushing, Long Island, where it was largely propagated. Dr. Hall, 
who before 1862 had never traveled much in Japan, no doubt found the 
plant in a garden near one of the ports. Nothing is known of it ex- 
cept what has been gathered from these cultivated plants. It is pos- 
sibly a native of Korea and was early introduced into Japan as a gar- 
den plant from that country. It is entirely hardy in Massachusetts 
and the early opening flower-buds suggest a northern origin. No Mag- 
nolia has been found in northern China yet but much of Korea has been 
only recently explored. It is probable that Magnolia stellata will 
prove hardy further north than any species with flowers opening before 
the leaves, and that it may be more successful as far north as Mon- 
treal or Toronto than it has been in Massachusetts. The Arboretum 
would be glad to hear of the hardiness of this plant in any part of 
Canada. The pink- flowered form of Magnolia stellata, which probably 
originated in a Japanese garden, is flowering well in the Arboretum 
this year. 
Forsythia ovata, a native of the Diamond Mountains of Korea, and 
in its range the most northern of all the species of this genus, was 
introduced by the Arboretum from seeds collected by Wilson in 1918. 
