42 
On a Japanese plant the heads of bracts here are rarely three and one 
half inches in diameter. The Chinese plant flowered first in the Arbor- 
etum in 1917 and the flower-buds have never been injured by cold. It 
is blooming more freely than ever before and is an object of great 
beauty. In China it grows as a small tree with a trunk sometimes a 
foot in diameter and there is no reason probably why it cannot be 
trained as a tree in this climate. The fact that it blooms when the 
leaves are nearly fully grown adds to the value of this Asiatic Cornel, 
and it is certainly when in flower one of the most ornamental small 
trees or shrubs found by Wilson in China. On the American plants 
the scarlet fruits are gathered in an erect head and are not united as 
in the Asiatic plants. This habit of the fruit adds to the beauty of 
the plant in the autumn when the leaves assume the brilliant colors of 
those of the eastern American plant. The Chinese form of C. kousa 
fruits freely in the Arboretum, and there is no reason why it should 
not become common in American gardens where it certainly should be 
one of the handsomest of the plants recently introduced into this 
country by the Arboretum. 
Cornus rugosa. Attention is called again to the value of this com- 
mon native shrub for the decoration of parks and gardens where, like 
many other eastern American shrubs, it is rarely seen. C. rugosa or 
C. circinnati, the name by which it is best known, is a shrub some- 
times ten feet high which with plenty of space spreads into broad 
thickets. The young branches are green blotched with purple, becom- 
ing purple as they grow older. The leaves are broad, sometimes nearly 
circular and dark bluish green; the flowers are ivory white, in compact 
clusters, and are followed in the early autumn by bright blue or nearly 
white fruits. This Cornel has been much planted in the Arboretum 
and has been greatly improved by cultivation. 
Hydrangea petiolaris. The specimen of this vine, the Japanese 
Climbing Hydrangea, on the southeastern corner of the Administration 
Building, is one of the great sights of the Arboretum at this season of 
the year when it is covered with flower-clusters from the ground to 
the eaves of the building. The leaves of few plants unfold here as 
early in the spring, and there is but one other climbing plant with 
conspicuous flowers really hardy in this climate, Schizophragma hydran- 
geoides, able to attach itself to a brick or stone wall or to the trunk 
of a tree. The flower-clusters of the Climbing Hydrangea are sur- 
rounded by a circle of white sterile flowers from eight to ten inches 
in diameter; they are terminal on short lateral branches which stand 
out from the main stem of the plant and give it an irregular surface 
which adds to its beauty and interest. This Hydrangea was first raised 
at the Arboretum in 1878 and can now be occasionally seen in Ameri- 
can gardens. It might be better known and more generally used for 
there is no other plant so well suited to cover the brick or stone walls 
of buildings in the northern United States. Schizophragma hydran- 
geoides, which is also a native of Japan, can be seen on the wall of 
the Administration Building next to the Climbing Hydrangea where it 
blooms later. Several Chinese shrubby species of Hydrangea open at 
this time their flowers which are arranged in broad flat-topped clusters 
surrounded by a ring of large pure white ray flowers. The best known 
