BULLETIN NO. 5. 
Three Maples now in bloom are valuable as flowering plants. The 
first, Acer tataricum, a small tree of eastern Europe and western Asia, 
although rarely seen in American collections, is an old inhabitant of gar- 
dens. The flowers are white and are produced in erect clusters longer 
than bro^d. More conspicuous even than the flowers are the scarlet 
wings of the fruit which are brightly colored in summer and remain a 
long time on the branches. The second of these Maples, Acer ginnala, 
is a small shrubby tree of eastern Siberia where it is abundant in the 
valley of the Amoor and in the neighborhood of Vladivostock. The flow- 
ers are pale yellow and, unlike those of most Maples, are very fragrant. 
The great value of this plant, however, is in the color of its autumn foli- 
age. The leaves drop early but before withering assume tints of scarlet 
which are not surpassed in brilliancy by the dying foliage of any Ameri- 
can tree. These Maples can be found in the Maple Group near the north 
end of the Shrub Collection. As a flowering plant Acer spicatum de- 
serves attention. This shrub, or small tree, of our northern forests is 
now covered with its long erect racemes of yellow flowers which do not 
open until the yellow-green lobed leaves are fully grown. There are sev- 
eral plants of this beautiful Maple near the first of the ponds on the right- 
hand side of the Meadow Road, and in other parts of the Arboretum. 
Among the Hawthorns which are planted between the Shrub Collection 
and the Parkway bordering the Arboretum are a few interesting trees 
still in flower. Of American species the handsomest is now Crataegus 
nitida with wide-spreading branches arranged in fiat open layers and lus- 
trous foliage. This belongs to a southern group of these trees which 
bear small flowers in crowded clusters and small red fruit. Another 
handsome species is Crataegus fecunda. This is a round-topped tree 
with long lower branches spreading over the ground and large flowers 
followed by oblong dull red fruit. These two trees, first cultivated in 
the Arboretum, were raised from seeds gathered thirty years ago in the 
neighborhood of St. Louis. Crataegus aprica from the foothills of the 
southern Appalachian Mountains is also in flower. This is a small-leaved 
tree with large flowers in few-flowered clusters and large, dull, orange- 
red fruits. It is interesting as the only representative of a large natural 
group confined to the southeastern United States which has flowered in 
the Arboretum. Beyond the American species, and between them and 
the Willow plantation, are several foreign species of Crataegus. The 
handsomest of these now in bloom is Crataegus pinnatifida, with large, 
lustrous deeply-divided leaves and large flowers in many-flowered clusters. 
There are large orchards of this tree in the neighborhood of Peking 
where it is cultivated for its oblong, scarlet and lustrous fruits. 
In the third of these bulletins attention was called to Lonicera syrin- 
gantha, var. Wolfii from western China. Next to this plant in the Shrub 
Collection Lonicera syringantha itself is now in bloom. It is a taller 
shrub than the variety with more gracefully disposed branches and pale 
pink or nearly white very fragrant flowers, and in this climate is a garden 
plant of real value. The pure white flowers of Lonicera Maackii from the 
valley of the Amoor River in eastern Siberia are larger than those of any 
other Bush Honeysuckle in the Arboretum, and their beauty is increased 
by the dark green leaves of this hardy plant. The fruit, however, is 
