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Early Locusts. Robinia Kelsey i and R. Michauxii are already in 
flower in the collection of these plants on the Meadow Road. R. Kel- 
seyi, discovered a few years ago on the southern Appalachian Moun- 
tains, is a slender-stemmed shrub from six to eleven feet high with 
lighter-colored and smaller flowers than those of the better known Rose 
Acacia {Robinia hispida). From that plant it differs, too, in the ab- 
sence of glandular hairs on the branches and of the abundant root 
shoots which often make that plant such a troublesome weed. Robinia 
Slavinii which is believed to be a hybrid of R. Kelseyi and R. pseudo- 
acacia, appeared a few years ago in the nursery of the Rochester, New 
York, Park Department and promises to be a handsome flowering tree. 
It is growing in the Arboretum but has not yet flowered here. R. 
Michauxii has the glandular hairs and the rose-colored flowers of R. 
hispida, but the flowers are rather smaller and the stems are three or 
four feet tall. Unlike R. hispida, which is not known to have ever 
produced fruit, R. Michauxii bears abundant crops of glandular pods. 
Although discovered by the French botanist Michaux in the foothill 
region of the southern mountains one hundred and twenty five years 
ago and known for many years in a few old northern gardens, the true 
character of this handsome plant has only recently been recognized. 
Xanthoceras sorbifolia. This Chinese shrub or small tree has flow- 
ered unusually well in the Shrub Collection this year. It has dark 
green leaves and erect and spreading racemes of white flowers marked 
with red at the base of the petals, and fruit somewhat like that of a 
Buckeye. This interesting plant is related to the so-called Texas 
Buckeye, Ungnadia, and to Koelreuteria, the yellow-flowered Chinese 
tree which blooms here at midsummer. It is very hardy but has a way 
of dying without any apparent cause, and for this reason it is not as 
often cultivated as it might be for when it flowers as it has here this 
year few shrubs are more beautiful. 
Symplocos paniculata, or as it is often called, S. crataegoides, is a 
native of Japan, China and the Himalayas. The form which is cultiva- 
ted here is Japanese, and is a tall broad shrub, with large, obovate, 
dark green deciduous leaves, small white flowers in abundant, compact 
panicles which open after the leaves are nearly full grown and are fol- 
lowed in the autumn by bright blue fruits about one-third of an inch 
in diameter. The plants are attractive when in flower; the fruit of a 
color unusual among that of hardy shrubs is the most interesting thing 
about it. Although introduced into the United States by the Parsons 
Nursery at Flushing, New York, nearly sixty years ago this beautiful 
shrub is still rare and difficult to obtain. 
Two native Viburnums. The Arboretum owes much of its late spring 
and early summer beauty to the two tree Viburnums of the northern 
states, V. Lentago and V. prumfolium, which have been generally 
planted, especially the former, by many of the drives and in many of the 
border shrubberies. These plants are now covered with flowers, and are 
in splendid condition this year, showing what care and cultivation can 
do for our commonest native plants. They show, too, that the Vibur- 
nums of eastern North America surpass in beauty and usefulness as 
American garden plants the Viburnums of all other parts of the world. 
