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one of their popular names, Service Berry. Amelanchier canadensis, 
which is the first species to bloom in the Arboretum, has been in flower 
for several days. It is a tree which occasionally grows to the height 
of sixty feet with a tall trunk eighteen inches in diameter. The leaves 
begin to unfold as the flowers open and are then covered with pale 
gray silky hairs, making the whole plant look white at this time of 
the year. This beautiful tree does not grow naturally nearer Boston 
than the western part of Massachusetts; it is common in western New 
York, and it is the common and often the only species in the southern 
states in which it grows to the Gulf coast. Owing to an old confusion 
in determination and names this fine tree, which was originally named 
by Linnaeus, has been rare in gardens, an entirely different plant 
having long appeared in books and gardens under the name of Amel- 
anchier canadensis. This is also a fine tree, differing conspicuously 
from A. canadensis in the red color of the young leaves which are 
destitute or nearly destitute of any hairy covering. This tree is now 
called by botanists A. Issvis. It is one of the native trees of the 
Arboretum, and there are a number of specimens growing naturally 
on the bank above the Crabapples on the left-hand side of the Forest 
Hills Road which begin to flower a few days later than A. canadensis, 
and are easily recognized by the color of the young leaves. Another 
species which is a native plant in the Arboretum, A. obovalis, is a 
large shrub rather than a tree with young leaves like those of A. can- 
adensis covered with white silky hairs. Large numbers of this shrub 
which has been planted along the drives and in other Arboretum shrub- 
beries will still be in bloom when this Bulletin reaches its Boston read- 
ers making this week one of the pleasantest of the year to visit the 
Arboretum. Five or six other species of the eastern states are now 
well established in the Arboretum collection on the grass path which 
follows the left-hand side of the Meadow Road; they are small shrubs 
rarely more than five or six feet high, in some species spreading from 
the roots into clumps of considerable size. They are all delightful 
plants well suited for the decoration of small gardens or the margins 
of shrubberies. Generally, however, they are unknown to garden lovers. 
Early flowering Pear-trees. The first Pear-tree to flower in the 
Arboretum this year, Pyrus usuriensis, was in bloom by the 25th of 
April. This tree is a native of Korea, north China and northern Japan, 
growing further north probably than any other Pear-tree, and some- 
times forming forests of some extent. It is probably, too, the largest 
of all Pear-trees for Wilson photographed in 1918 a tree growing near 
Shinan in the Province of Nogen, Korea, which was sixty feet tall with 
a trunk fourteen feet in girth and a head seventy-five feet across. The 
fruit varies in size and shape, and, judged by American standards, has 
little or no value. It is believed, however, that the hardiness of this 
tree may make it valuable as stock on which to grow some of the Eu- 
ropean garden pears, and experiments with it as stock are being planned 
in Dakota. A Chinese form of this Pear-tree, var. ovoidea, is probably 
better worth growing for the decoration of parks and gardens. The 
flowers are larger and open in the Arboretum about ten days later; the 
fruit, which differs in shape from that of other Pear-trees, is broad at 
base and gradually narrowed at apex, and although not large is juicy 
