32 
green leaves which in early autumn turn orange and scarlet, and then 
are not surpassed in brilliancy by the leaves of any other American tree. 
The bright blue shining fruits, which are about two-thirds of an inch 
long, are also ornamental. This tree varies greatly in habit. Near the 
coast it is low with a broad, flat or rounded had. Such trees are com- 
mon on Cape Cod and near the northern shore of Long Island Sound. 
In the interior, and on the slopes of the southern Appalachian Moun- 
tains, where it grows to its largest size, it is often a hundred feet high, 
with a tall massive trunk four or flve feet in diameter and a narrow 
head of erect branches. Few American trees are better worth culti- 
vating for the ornament of parks, but no one in these days plants a 
Sour Gum. The long hard roots make it difficult to transplant, and 
only small seedlings can be successfully moved. Those persons who 
care only for “immediate effect,” the slogan of Americans of the 
twentieth century who believe that money only is needed to secure 
fully grown trees, have little use for the Sour Gum which wisely rebels 
against the modern method of tree-planting which menaces the future 
of too many American country estates. 
Cornus kbusa. The flower-buds of this eastern Asiatic representa- 
tive of our Flowering Dogwood were not injured by the winter which 
ruined those of the American tree, .and the Japanese form of Cornus 
kousa is now in bloom. It is a small tree or large shrub and the white 
bracts which surround the clusters of flowers are smaller than those 
of our native tree and are pointed. The form from western China has 
rather larger flower-bracts than those of the Japanese plant. The fact 
that the flower-buds of the Asiatic tree have not been injured by the 
cold of the past winter adds to its value. 
The Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is in bloom. Occasionally 
more plants on the bank at the northern base of Hemlock Hill have 
flowered than are flowering this year, but the display is much better 
than it was a year ago, and the Arboretum Laurels are now well worth 
a visit. The Mountain Laurel is a remarkable plant. It can be seen in 
full bloom near the shores of Mississippi Sound during the first week 
of April, and travelling north one can see its flowers every day until 
early July when the northern limit of its range in New Brunswick and 
the northern shore of Lake Erie is reached. It grows as well in New 
England as it does in regions where the climate is less rigorous, but 
in New England the plants never grow to the size they attain on the 
Blue Ridge of North and South Carolina about the headwaters of the 
Savannah and Little Tennessee Rivers. Few plants have more beau- 
tiful flowers; and the Mountain Laurel is a broad-leaved evergreen, 
and broad-leaved evergreens which are hardy in Massachusetts, with 
the exception of a few low under shrubs, can be almost counted on the 
fingers of one hand. For of these plants only the Kalmia latifolia, 
Rhododendron catawhiense, R. maximum and Andromeda florihunda 
can be absolutely depended on. A few more Rhododendrons might be 
added to the list, but after the experience of recent years it is not 
safe to say that any foreign species or any hybrid Rhododendron will 
prove hardy under all the weather conditions Massachusetts may 
experience. 
