Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. IV 
NO. 13 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. OCTOBER 18, 1918 
The Red or Scarlet Maple (Acer rubrum). The flowers of the Red 
Maple are red on some individuals and on others pale yellow, trees 
with flowers of these two colors growing together over a large part 
of the region inhabited by this tree. On some trees the autumn leaves are 
of diiferent shades of red or scarlet and on others clear yellow. If any 
reader of these Bulletins has noticed if the autumn color of the leaves 
of trees with red flowers is red and that of trees with yellow flowers is 
yellow the Arboretum will be glad to hear from him on the subject. 
On the left-hand side of the Meadow Road not far from the Jamaica 
Plain entrance and opposite the Administration Building there is a Red 
Maple with unusually dark crimson autumn leaves. This tree is inter- 
esting from the exceptionally beautiful color of the leaves at this sea- 
son and from the fact that it is a grafted tree raised to show the pos- 
sibility of propagating trees exceptional in the color of their autumn 
foliage. This branch of arboriculture has not been much practised, 
but when it is realized that the leaves on some individual trees or 
shrubs of a species assume more brilliant colors than those of other 
individuals of the same species, that this peculiarity is constant from 
year to year and that it can be preserved and multiplied by grafting, 
there is no reason why a demand for trees with exceptionally beautiful 
autumn leaves should not make possible the supply, just as the de- 
mand for trees of abnormal habit or with abnormal foliage, like a 
Mulberry with pendulous branches or a Beech with purple leaves, has 
created the supply. . 
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