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seen in the Pinetum but these are trees which grow slowly and probably 
will never be large or important trees in this climate. 
The conifers of central and northern Japan usually do well in New Eng- 
land although only time can tell whether they will ever reach old age 
here. One of the Silver Firs, Abies brachyphylla , grows particularly 
well in the Arboretum and, next to Abies concolor, is one of the most 
promising of the Silver Firs which have been planted in New England. 
The other Japanese Firs are hardy here but none of them seem likely to 
attain any great size or age. Several of the Japanese Spruces grow well, 
and of Picea Alcockiana, Picea bicolor , and Picea Glenhii, better spec- 
imens can be seen in New England than in Europe. 
The Japanese Arbor Vitae, Thuya Standishii , is not a large tree but it 
is perfectly at home in the Arboretum, as is the curious Umbrella Pine, 
Sciadopitys verticillata, and the Mountain Hemlock, Tsuga diversifolia. 
The true Pines of Japan, Pinus Thunbergii, Pinus densifiora, the eastern 
Asiatic representative of the so-called Scotch Pine of Europe and Siberia, 
Pinus parvijlora and Pinus pentaphylla , are all well established in the 
Arboretum and produce cones here every year. The different forms of 
Retinospora, or Chamaecy paris, can also be seen in the Arboretum where 
there is a large collection of these plants; they sometimes suffer from our 
dry summers. 
Of the continental conifers of eastern Asia the most interesting in the 
Arboretum are the Korean and Manchurian White Pine, Pinus koraien- 
sis , one of the most valuable timber trees of eastern Asia, and the curious 
Lacebark Pine of China, Pinus Bungeana. This is a tree often shrubby 
in habit with thin foliage and chiefly remarkable for the snow-white color 
of the trunk and branches of old trees, a condition which none of the 
specimens in this country are yet old enough to show. 
Two conifers from the Balkan Mountains are hardy in the Arboretum 
and produce their cones annually. These are a Spruce, Picea omorika , 
and a White Pine, Pinus peuke. Picea omorika, although it forms 
great forests on the mountains of southeastern Europe, has been known 
for a few years only to botanists and some of the oldest plants in culti- 
vation are in the Arboretum where they form narrow, rather compact 
pyramids and, growing rapidly, promise to be valuable ornamental trees. 
Its nearest relative is the Spruce of the northwest coast, Picea sitchen- 
sis, which is not hardy here. 
Of the Firs of southeastern Europe and Asia Minor Abies cilicica and 
Abies cephalonica are perhaps of the most promise in this climate where 
they are perfectly hardy. The former is a native of the Cilicican Taurus 
where it grows at a high elevation above the sea-level with the Cedar of 
Lebanon, here in its most northern and coldest station. A few years 
ago the Arboretum was fortunate in securing the seeds of the Cedar 
from this region and the trees raised from these seeds are now well es- 
tablished and promise to be successful here, while plants of this tree 
derived from Palestine have proved unable to bear the New England 
climate. 
