Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL IV 
NO. I 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN. MASS. MAY 4. 1918 
Effects of the Severe Winter. The winter of 1917-18 has been one 
of the severest in New England of which there is any record. In 
December when the ground was without a covering ^of snow the 
thermometer did not rise here from above zero for nearly a week with 
a minimum of 17° below. There was little snow at any time during 
the winter, and the ground, which froze to a depth of from five to 
seven feet, was not clear of frost until after the first of April. Abun- 
dant rains late in the summer and in the early autumn, and the fact 
that the cold has been continuous through the winter, without periods 
of warm weather, which in this region often excite dangerous vegeta- 
tive activity, have enabled many plants to survive the extreme cold 
which under less favorable conditions would probably have destroyed 
them. Still it seems safe to predict that any tree or shrub which has 
lived here through the past winter will be able to resist successfully a 
Massachusetts winter. The condition of the plants in the Arboretum 
at this time is of general interest therefore as an indication of the 
trees and shrubs of recent introduction which can be successfully grown 
in this climate. It must, however, be remembered that local conditions, 
that is conditions of soil, position, moisture and dryness influence the 
hardiness of plants, and that a tree which succeeds in the Arboretum 
might not be hardy in another garden in the same general region. 
The injuries to the Arboretum collections caused by the winter have 
not on the whole been as great as we had every reason to fear three 
months ago. The Conifers which have been killed are the glaucous- 
leaved Mt. Atlas Cedar {Cedrus atlantica glauca) which has been kept 
alive here for several years in a protected position; young plants of 
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