8 
the spring a day or two later than those of the variety pendula. The 
autumn flowers are rather smaller than those of the spring crop, but 
opening in October never fail to create interest and curiosity. 
The Sargent Cherry so-called, a northern form of Prunus serrulata 
(var. sachalinensis) is the handsomest of all Cherry-trees of large size, 
as Prunns siibhirtella is the handsomest of the species which are shrubs 
rather than trees. The large single rose-colored or pink flowers which 
are opening this week are short lived but very abundant; and the 
hardiness of the trees, which have not been attacked here yet by dis- 
ease, the beauty of the large green leaves brilliantly colored in the 
autumn, and the lustrous bark make this the handsomest of Cherry- 
trees. In northern Japan the Sargent Cherry was once a common in- 
habitant of the forest, growing sometimes to a height of eighty feet 
with a tall massive trunk. Such trees have been sought for the value 
of the timber they produce and are fast disappearing. This tree was 
first raised in 1891 in the Arboretum from seeds presented by Dr. 
William Sturgis Bigelow, of Boston, and his tree, the largest specimen 
standing in the United States, and probably in Europe, is growing just 
below those of Prunus subhirtella. A taller and narrower tree raised 
from seeds collected by Prof. Sargent in Japan in 1892, is standing by 
the Forest Hills Road near its junction with the Meadow Road. Some 
of the handsomest and hardiest of. the double flowered Cherry-trees 
cultivated by the Japanese, like albo-rosea and fugenzo, better known 
in nurseries as “James H. Vietch, “ seedlings of this species, supply 
the best stock on which to work most of the double flowered Japanese 
Cherries, and the reason they have failed here and in Europe is because 
they have been worked usually on Prunus avium which has not proved 
a successful stock for it. Fortunately several of the Japanese trees in 
the Arboretum are large enough to produce abundant crops of seeds, 
and there are a few other plants in eastern Massachusetts which usu- 
ally ripen their seed every year. Nurserymen who wish to supply the 
demand for double flowered Japanese Cherry-trees can obtain the seed 
from these trees, and stock of all the best varieties can be obtained 
from the trees which were sent several years ago from the Arboretum 
to the Park Department of Rochester, to be grown for this purpose. 
There is no reason therefore why thousands of the best forms of these 
double-flowered Cherry-trees, hardy, on permanent stock, should not 
be procurable in a few years in this country. As the seeds from the 
Arboretum have now been distributed in this country for several years 
to a number of nurserymen and others, there are probably already a 
number of plants here large enough for stock. 
Prunus incisa, the fourth of the early flowering Japanese Cherries, 
is again in flowers. It is still a small treelike shrub, differing from 
Prunus subhirtella and P. serrulata in its deeply lobed leaves and pure 
white petals. These last only a few days, but the calyx, which grad- 
ually turns red remains on the fruit two or three weeks and is distinctly 
conspicuous. Although a common plant in Japan on the Hakone Moun- 
tains and the slopes of Fuji-san, this tree is still rare in American and 
European gardens where it has been usually incorrectly named. The 
oldest plant in the Arboretum, which is growing near P. subhirtella^ 
was obtained in 1912 from a German nursery. 
