52 
cies from the southern United States which are not hardy here. With 
few exceptions the important and interesting varieties and hybrids are 
represented in the collection. Many of the plants are still too small 
to produce fruit or to show the habit of mature trees, but as a whole 
the collection offers a good opportunity for the study of the leaves and 
branchlets of Elm-trees. 
Hydrangea paniculata. Three forms of this Japanese shrub or small 
tree are in the Arboretum collection. The flowers of the three forms 
are borne in large terminal oblong pointed clusters and the long acumi- 
nate dark green leaves make the plants attractive before the flowers 
open and after they fade, although like those of other Hydrangeas they 
fall in the autumn without change of color. The clusters of fertile 
flowers on what is considered the typical form are surrounded by the 
ring of white sterile flowers to which Hydrangeas owe the beauty of 
their inflorescence. This form, which is a handsome and valuable gar- 
den plant, will not be in bloom for another month. There is, how- 
ever, an early-flowering form (var. praecox) which is now just opening 
its flowers, and which is very similar, except in its time of flowering, 
to the type. This form has, how^ever, rather larger and whiter ray 
flowers, and is a more ornamental plant. Indeed when in flower in 
early July it is one of the handsomest shrubs in the Arboretum. This 
early flowering form appears to be exceedingly rare in American gar- 
dens. This unfortunately cannot be said of the third form of Hydran- 
gea paniculata (var. grandifiora) on which the entire inflorescence is 
composed of sterile flowers which form a great cone-like white 
mass of abortins which as they fade turn to a dirty red. This plant 
has been propagated and sold by American nurserymen during the last 
fifty years by hundreds of thousands, possibly by millions, so that it 
is now perhaps more generally cultivated throughout the country than 
any other garden shrub, and certainly no other shrub has done so 
much to disfigure the surroundings of the homes of the people of 
the northern United States. A few years ago the only plant within 
the fence which surrounds Jefferson’s Grove at Monticello was Hydran- 
gea paniculata grandifiora. And Thomas Jefferson published in 1784 
in his “Notes on the State of Virginia,’’ the first comprehensive list 
of the plants of his native State, among which are some of the most 
beautiful trees and shrubs in the world. 
Hydrangea radiata. With the exception of Hydrangea quercifolia 
of the southern states, which is not really hardy in New England, H. 
radiata is the handsomest of the four American species and their varie- 
ties. It is a broad round-topped shrub of excellent habit, with leaves 
of ample size dark green above and silvery white below, and broad 
heads of fertile flowers surrounded by a ring of white neutral flowers. 
This shrub is a native of mountain slopes in North and South Carolina, 
and many years ago a favorite garden plant is now rarely cultivated, 
being replaced by H. paniculata grandifiora and the forms with all 
sterile flowers of the American H. arborescens and H. cinera. 
