71 
feet in diameter, and has so far escaped the loss of branches which 
disfigures this Spruce after it is thirty years old. Although well worth 
the attention of lovers of dwarf conifers, Pinus pungens compacta is 
little known beyond the limits of the Arboretum. The seedling of 
Abies lasiocarpa retained its dwarf habit for many years but has now 
begun to grow more vigorously and to assume the typical habit of the 
species. The dwarf of the European Silver Fir {Abies Picea compacta) 
behaves here in the same way and after a few years grows out of its 
dwarf habit. There is in the collection a small plant of a dwarf of 
Abies concolor which is very compact, but it is too soon to speak of 
its value. The well known dwarf of the Balsam Fir {Abies balsamea 
var. hudsonica) is a real dwarf only a few inches high. A number of 
seedling forms of the White Pine {Pinus Strobus) and of the Scotch 
Pine {Pinus sylvestris) are in the collection, but the best known and 
most generally planted dwarf Pines are the mountain forms of the 
European Pinus montaUa which appear in the catalogues of nursery- 
men as Pinus pumilio and P. Mughus. There are many forms of this 
hardy dwarf; they are broad shrubs with erect or semiprostrate stems 
and are rarely more than ten feet high, but often much broader 
than tall. Seedlings of these plants show great variation in size and 
habit, and new forms are constantly found in nursery seed-beds. The 
dwarf form of the Douglas Spruce {Pseudotsuga Douglasii var. globosa) 
has proved one of the slowest growing of these plants in the Arbore- 
tum collection. 
In the common Hemlock of eastern North America the tendency to 
variation in seedling plants is unusually strong and dwarfs differing in 
size, shape and vigor are often found in the neighborhood of Hemlock 
groves. Some of these have been propagated and have received names 
but as different names have been used for the same or nearly the same 
forms it is not now possible, even if it were desirable, to distinguish 
all these dwarf Hemlocks by name. 
Among the seedlings of the Arbor Vitae of eastern North America 
are found some of the handsomest of the dwarf conifers. There is a 
large collection of abnormal forms of this tree in the Arboretum col- 
lection and among them none are better than those called “Little 
Gem,” compacta and Hoveyi. Seedlings of the Japanese Retinos- 
poras {Chamaecyparis obtusa and pisifera) show, too, a great ten- 
dency to variation. One of the handsomest of these forms is C. obtusa 
nana, a compact, pyramidal, slow-growing plant. The largest speci- 
men in the collection is now about eight feet tall. Other forms of 
C. obtusa are compact mats which show little indication of growing more 
than a few inches high. In the collection there are among others 
dwarf forms of C. pisifera^ plants with yellow-tipped branches and 
others with yellow and with white leaves and plants of the variety 
Jilifera with green and with yellow leaves. 
Among the Junipers are found some of the most useful dwarf coni- 
fers. Some of these are forms of arborescent species and others 
are natural dwarfs which reproduce themselves from seed. Among 
the former are three varieties of the so-called Red Cedar of the eastern 
