BULLETIN NO. 14. 
The Arboretum is often asked for information about a class of plants 
which in distinction from conifers are popularly called “broad-leaved 
evergreens. ” The general absence of these plants from the gardens of 
the northeastern United States astonishes European visitors to this coun- 
try, and their prominence in the gardens of Great Britain, Italy, and 
other temperate parts of Europe often makes American travellers in 
those countries despondent over the possibility of having really good gar- 
dens here; the prominence, too, which has been given inflate years here 
to architecture in garden-making has increased the demand for these 
broad-leaved evergreens, for they are essential for the decoration of a 
true architectural garden. This, however, is not a country where many 
of these plants can be successfully cultivated. The winters are too cold, 
the leaves give up too much moisture to March winds when the roots are 
still inactive in frozen soil, and the summers are too hot and dry. 
The Ilex ( Quercus Rex), the chief ornament in the gardens of Italy, the 
so-called Laurel of English gardens, and the Portuguese Laurel, which 
are such only in name, being really evergreen Cherry-trees, the Bay and 
the Laurestinus, unless cramped in pots, will never be seen in American 
gardens. This is a region for plants which lose their leaves in the autumn 
and here many of these plants flourish as in no other part of the world. 
The number of broad-leaved evergreens which can really be depended 
on in eastern Massachusetts is small. The most important are the Rho- 
dodendrons and the Kalmia or Laurel. The most successful here of all 
the plants of this class is the broad-leaved Laurel, Kalmia latifolia. It 
is hardier and less particular about soil, and easier to cultivate than even 
the hardiest Rhododendrons, like Rhododendron maximum and Rhodo- 
dendron catawbiense; and, moreover, it is one of the most beautiful 
flowering plants in the world. The little native Sheepkill Laurel, Kalmia 
angustifolia, and the less well known Kalmias of northern swamps, K. 
polifolia and K. microphylla are broad-leaved evergreens also, although 
these plants are seldom cultivated. The Laurels, like the Rhodendrons 
and other plants of the Heath Family, cannot be grown in soil strongly 
impregnated with lime, so their use is restricted to a comparatively small 
part of the country. To the Heath Family we are indebted for a few 
other plants of this class. The handsomest of these is Pieris or Andro- 
meda jloribunda, a broad low bush with small dark green leaves and 
abundant conspicuous clusters of dull white flowers. This plant grows 
naturally on a few of the high mountains of the southern Appalachian 
region and has been long known in gardens. It is very hardy here and, 
after the Kalmias and Rhododendrons, perhaps the most desirable of the 
broad-leaved evergreens for this region. A Japanese species, Pieris 
japonica, which in Japan sometimes attains the size of a small tree, is 
also hardy, but it blossoms early in the season, and the flowers, which 
are larger and handsomer than those of the native species, are too often 
destroyed by frost. 
