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autumn colors of several trees are perhaps more brilliant but none of 
them equal the Sassafras in the warmth and delicacy of their autumn 
foliage. The Sassafras is also a handsome tree at other seasons of the 
year. In the winter it is conspicuous for its dark cinnamon gray bark 
and slender light green branchlets; in early spring before the leaves 
appear it is covered with innumerable clusters of small light yellow 
flowers which make it at that time a conspicuous and beautiful object. 
The leaves are thick and green, lustrous above, paler below, and very 
remarkable in shape as they are sometimes deeply lobed at the apex 
and sometimes entire without a trace of lobes. The fruit is bright 
blue surrounded at the base by the much enlarged and thickened small 
calyx of the flower, and is raised on a bright long red stalk. No other 
North American tree produces such brilliantly colored fruits. Unfor- 
tunately there is little time to enjoy it for the birds greedily seek it 
as soon as it ripens. The wood of the Sassafras is not attacked by bor- 
ers, and the leaves are not destroyed or rarely disfigured by insects. 
The thick spongy roots of this tree produce suckers freely and these 
with a little care should be safely transplanted. How many persons 
now plant the Sassafras, and in how many American nurseries can it 
be found? It was, however, one of the first North American trees 
carried to Europe, as it was established in England sometime before 
the middle of the seventeenth century. Until 1879, when another 
species was discovered in central China, the American tree was believed 
to be the only Sassafras. The Chinese tree has unfortunately not yet 
proved hardy in New England. The American species does not always 
prove as easy to transplant as it might, and in the Arboretum it has 
proved extremely difficult to multiply as much as has been desired. 
The color of the leaves of a group of dwarf Hawthorns is not sur- 
passed in beauty from the middle to the end of October. These plants 
are referred to the Intricatae Group and are arranged together on the 
lower side of the road at the eastern base of Peter’s Hill next to the 
Crabapple Collection. These shrubs are confined to the northern United 
States and Canada, and are perhaps more numerous in Pennsylvania, 
western New York and Michigan than in any other part of the country. 
Their flowers are large and conspicuous with yellow, rose-colored or 
pink anthers, and the fruit ripens late and is scarlet, red, orange-yel- 
low or russet, and its beauty is increased by the brilliantly colored 
leaves at the time it ripens. A large number of these plants are now 
in the collection, and one of the handsomest this year is Crataegus 
cuprea with scarlet foliage and russet or copper-colored fruit. This 
little shrub was first detected in a small lot in the city of Wilmington, 
Delaware, and is not known to grow naturally beyond the limits of 
that city. Crataegus Delosii, found growing several years ago by the 
side of a road near Toronto, is unusually full of its orange and red 
fruits this autumn. This species differs from the others of the group 
in the large number of fruits (ten to fifteen) compactly arranged in 
dense clusters. The autumn leaves are green and yellow. Other 
species of this group deserving of attention are C. infera. from the 
neighborhood of Sellarsville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with orange- 
red fruit and brilliant orange and red autumn leaves; C. fruticosa, a 
shrub five or six feet tall, which has only been found on the Serpen- 
tine Ridge near West Chester, Pennsylvania, with deep, orange-red 
