Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. X 
NO. 17 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. NOVEMBER 14. 1924 
The Arboretum has not as yet greatly suffered from the severe 
drought which has prevailed in New England, only thirty minutes of 
rain having fallen here since the 1st of October. The autumn color of 
the leaves of many plants has never been finer than it has this year, but 
the leaves have already fallen from most of the trees, even from the 
Oaks which are the last to make a great show. The leaves of the 
Blueberries and Huckleberries which turn scarlet late in the autumn 
still make a display, and as a ground cover in native woods there are 
no more beautiful plants than the three dwarf Blueberries of the east- 
ern states, Vaccinium pennsylvanicum, V. canadense and V. vacillans. 
Many other shrubs which make a showing with their crimson leaves 
in the late autumn, especially when covered with the scarlet fruit, are 
conspicuous. Of the species closely related to the common Barberry, 
Berberis vulgaris, the handsomest perhaps in the collection is the Jap- 
anese B. Regeliana, a large shrub with large pale flowers, large fruit and 
leaves which turn orange and scarlet. Although still rare here, this 
plant was brought to the United States more than fifty years ago and 
was long cultivated in the Parsons Nursery on Long Island as Ber- 
beris Hakodate. The Chinese B. diaphana is now perhaps the hand- 
somest of the species known here with dark autumn foliage. This is 
a low round-topped shrub, broader than high, with large solitary flow- 
ers, which rarely produces fruit. The only objection to this shrub is 
that the leaves unfold so late that the plants appear dead when other 
Barberries are covered with fully grown leaves. Among the Chinese 
species a most beautiful Barberry is Berberis circumserrata, a small 
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