Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. IV 
NO. 2 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. MAY 9. 1918 
Effects of the severe winter. Most of the Taxads which have been 
grown successfully in the Arboretum have suffered from the cold of 
the winter. All the forms of the Japanese Taxus cuspidata, however, 
are now as green and fresh as they were in October. As the years 
pass the confidence in the value of this plant increases and it has never 
been as great as it is this spring. Among all the plants which Japan 
has contributed to the gardens of the eastern United States no other 
is so generally valuable. Fortunately American nurserymen are at last 
beginning to realize that this Yew has some commercial value, and it 
will soon be within the reach of everyone who has a garden or wants 
to plant the best possible evergreen hedge for New England. The 
form of this Yew (var. chinensis) introduced by Wilson from western 
China is less hardy than the Japanese plant. In a collection of young 
plants of the Chinese form, in as protected a position as could be 
found in the Arboretum, some are slightly injured and others are dead. 
It is not probable that this fine tree, therefore, will ever become es- 
tablished in Massachusetts. On all the forms of the European Yew 
{Taxus baccata) there are dead leaves and dead or injured branches. 
All the plants of T. baccata erecta have been killed, and there are a 
few dead branches even on T. baccata repandens, the plant with wide- 
spreading, semiprostrate stems which has lived in this climate for sev- 
eral years without injury and has been considerered here the hardiest 
and most desirable of all the forms of the European Yew for New 
England. Plants of the Canadian Yew (T. canadensis), the so-called 
Ground Hemlock of northern woods, planted in the shade or in full 
exposure to the sun, have been badly disfigured as the tips of most of 
the branches and all the upper leaves have been killed. The leaves on 
upper branches of the Japanese Torreya mucifera are dry and begin- 
5 
