Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL IV 
NO. 17 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. NOVEMBER 11, 1918 
In the Pinetum. The collection of cone-bearing trees and shrubs is 
of special interest this autumn as during the past twelve months it 
has had to endure such severe weather conditions that plants which 
are now in good condition should be able to successfully support 
any extremes of heat, cold and dryness which they are likely to meet 
with in Massachusetts. In discussing the possibility of cultivating 
conifers in the northeastern United States it must be remembered that 
at its best this is not a favorable climate for these trees. There are 
only a few indigenous species here in New England, and all the exotic 
species which can be grown here grow better in other parts of the 
world. This is the region for trees and shrubs which lose their leaves 
in autumn and the man who wants to plant successfully and perma- 
nently here must use these plants, and not conifers or broad-leaved 
evergreens, unless he is prepared to suffer many disappointments. It 
is the business of a scientific establishment like the Arboretum to ex- 
periment with all plants which, judged by the region where they grow 
naturally, have any chance of success and to report failures as well as 
successes. Enough is now known of the habitat and climatic condi- 
tions necessary for the conifers of the world to make it possible to 
say that none of these trees which grow in any part of the world 
south of the equator can grow here. It is now known that none of 
the conifers of the southern United States, Mexico, Central America 
and the West Indies can be grown in the north. This is true, too, of 
the species of southern Europe, northern Africa, southern India, south- 
western China, Formosa and the southern islands of the Japanese em- 
pire. Of the conifers of the Pacific coast of North America only a 
few can grow at all in the east. The planter of conifers therefore in the 
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