47 
little ponds near the junction of the Meadow and Bussey Hill Roads 
add much to the beauty of the Arboretum in July. Growing with 
Sambucus canadensis in the Shrub Collection is a form with leaflets 
deeply divided into narrow segments (var. acutiloba) and more curious 
than beautiful. There are in the collection also a form with yellow 
fruit (var. chLorocarpa), and var. maxima, which originated a few years 
ago in a European nursery and which has flower-clusters three times 
as large as those of the wild plant and such large and heavy bunches 
of fruit that the branches can hardly support them. A variety with 
yellow leaves (var. aurea) is also in the collection. More objectionable 
than many yellow-leaved shrubs because it is hardier and grows more 
rapidly to a larger size than many of them, this plant now disfigures 
many European gardens and is too often seen in those of this country. 
Cytisus nigricans. Of the small yellow-flowered shrubs of the Pea 
Family, which are such a feature of the flora of southern and south- 
eastern Europe, and are so important and highly valued in the gardens 
of western Europe, the best known in Massachusetts is the Woad Wax, 
Genista tinctoria. Brought early from England as a garden plant, it 
long ago escaped from a Salem garden and has spread over and ruined 
for agriculture hundreds of acres in Essex County. Planted in the 
Arboretum it has spread among the native plants like dwarf Roses 
and Goldenrods which form a considerable part of the ground cover 
among the groups of Hickories and Oaks, and now enlivens the valley 
through which the Valley Road extends from Centre to South Street. 
There is a taller variety of the Woad Wax (var. elatior) with larger 
flowers growing in the Arboretum. More beautiful and the handsomest 
of these plants which an experience of many years has shown to be 
suited to New England gardens is Cytisus nigricans. This native of 
northern Italy, Austria and Hungary is now in bloom in the Shrub 
Collection, and no plant now flowering there is more distinct and beau- 
tiful. As it grows in the Arboretum it is a compact, round-topped 
bush from two to three feet tall and broad. It differs from most of 
the related plants in the arrangement of the flowers which are borne 
in long erect racemes terminal on branches of the year. They are 
bright yellow and produced in great profusion. 
Early flowering Summer Hydrangeas. The handsomest and most 
valuable of these eastern Asiatic plants here is the so-called Climbing 
Hydrangea {Hydrangea petiolaris) of Japan. This plant was first 
raised at the Arboretum in 1878 and is now seen in a few American 
gardens. A plant now growing here on the Administration Building is 
one of the great sights of the Arboretum, for it has grown with un- 
usual vigor and is clothed with leaves and covered with its broad heads 
of flowers from the ground to the eaves of the building. The leaves 
of few plants unfold here so early in the spring, and there is but one 
other vine, Schizophragma, with deciduous leaves and showy flowers 
able in this climate to attach itself firmly to a brick or stone wall, or 
to the trunk of a tree. The flower-clusters, surrounded by a circle of 
sterile flowers, are from eight to ten inches in diameter and terminal 
on short lateral branches which stand out from the body of the plant 
and give it an irregular surface which adds to its interest and beauty. 
