54 
tined to play an important part in the decoration of parks and gardens 
in the northeastern United States where few Rhododendrons or other 
broad-leaved evergreen plants can be grown. They are as hardy as 1 
the hardiest of the catawbiense hybrids, and flowering two or three j 
weeks later than these prolong the flowering time of hybrid Rhododen- jj 
drons into July, that is to the time when the conspicuous flowering of ( 
trees and shrubs is not abundant. 
Schizophragma hydrangeoides, now that it has at last, after forty ' 
years of failure, found a place that suits it on the east side of the ^ 
Administration Building, is growing rapidly and promises to cover as i 
much space as the great plant of the Japanese Climbing Hydrangea ' 
which is its neighbor. It is already half way to the top of the build- 
ing, and its value as a flowering plant in July is now shown by its : 
conspicuous flower-clusters. The Japanese Schizophragma now grows ! 
as rapidly as the Climbing Hydrangea and clings as firmly to a brick [ 
wall. The leaves are smaller, more circular in shape, more coarsely 
toothed and darker and duller in color. The inflorescence, which is [ 
terminal on short lateral branchlets, which stand out from the stems, | 
is interesting but not perhaps as showy as that of the Hydrangea, for i 
instead of the surrounding ring of neutral flowers there are only two 
neutral flowers to each of the divisions to the large compound cluster f 
of perfect flowers; these neutral flowers are snow white, ovate, often j 
an inch or more long, and hang on long slender stems an inch in length. | 
Schizophragma hydrangeoides seems to be a rare plant in American ; 
and European gardens, and in this country Hydrangea petiolaris is 
often sold for it. The Chinese species, S. integrifolia introduced by 
Wilson, has not yet found a place in the Arboretum which suits it, and 
has not proved hardy here. It is a handsomer plant than the Japanese 
species with much larger sterile flowers. 
Decumaria barbara is another climbing plant of the Saxifrage Fam- 
ily which is now flowering in the Arboretum Nursery. It grows natur- I 
ally by the banks of streams and in swamps from southeastern Virginia ! 
to central and western Florida, western Louisiana, and western Ten- 
nessee, often climbing up the trunks of trees by its aerial roots to the • 
height of thirty feet. This handsome and interesting plant has dark 
green and lustrous leaves, small, white, fragrant flowers in large, ter- 
minal, compound clusters, and capsular, urn-shaped fruit with a per- \ 
sistent style and stigma. It is rare in gardens, certainly in those of j 
the northeastern United States, but there is an old and well established i 
plant in that of Mr. N. T. Kidder in Milton, Massachusetts, which 
flowers every year. It is now growing well and promises to become 
established in the Arboretum. The Chinese species introduced by Wil- ; 
son is growing well in a cold pit here but has not yet flowered. ^ 
I 
Itea virginica, another plant of the Saxifrage Family, was in flower ■ 
last week in the Shrub Collection. It is a shrub two or three feet 
high, with simple, alternate, minutely serrate, deciduous leaves and ? 
small white flowers in terminal erect racemes. This interesting little ; 
plant is widely distributed from New Jersey to Florida and Louisiana, 
and northward to Missouri and southern Illinois, ascending on the Car- 
