fragrant rose-colored flowers. In summer a nearly full second crop of 
flowers is sometimes produced, and flowers occasionally continue to ap- 
pear until November. This Daphne is one of the most attractive of the 
evergreen shrubs which can be grown in this climate. It is usually per- 
fectly hardy but sometimes suffers in winter, and as often in mild as in 
exceptionally severe winters. It is rather capricious, too, in matters of 
soil and situation, flourishing for years in some gardens and failing in 
others. 
There are flowers, too, on some of the forms of the Heather ( Calluna 
vulgaris ) in the Shrub Collection, and the Cornish Heath, Erica vagans, 
which has been covered with flowers during the last two months, is still 
flowering abundantly. This is one of the few Heaths which can be 
grown in New England. Equally hardy is the red-flowered Erica carnea 
which blooms in early spring and only for a short time. This is a smaller 
plant than E. vagans and a native of the Alps of central Europe ; while 
the Cornish Heath, of which there are both red and white-flowered forms, 
is rather widely distributed in western Europe. 
There are still flowers on the plant of Vitex incisa in the Shrub Collec- 
tion. This is a member of the Verbena Family and a native of northern 
China and Mongolia. It is a large shrub of open graceful habit, with 
compound leaves and erect clusters of small bright blue flowers, and is 
valuable for its good habit, attractive leaves, and late flowers. It is not 
so showy, however, in flower as the Chaste Tree, Vitex Agnus-castus , a 
native of southern Europe and western Asia which, unfortunately, is not 
hardy in New England. 
Abelia grandijlora is flowering on Hickory Path near Centre Street. 
Abelia is a genus related to the Honeysuckles, of some twenty-five spe- 
cies in eastern Asia and a single representative in Mexico. Several spe- 
cies have been recently introduced into the Arboretum by Wilson from 
western China and some of these lived through last winter in the open 
ground. It is too soon, however, to speak of their value here as garden 
plants; and the only plant of this interesting genus which can now be 
depended upon here is A. grandijlora. This is a hybrid between two 
Chinese species, A. chinensis and A. unifiora , and is found in gardens 
under a number of names. It seems, however, to be most often culti- 
vated as A. rupeStris. This is the Mexican species which is sometimes 
grown in greenhouses in this country and in the gardens of southern 
Europe. A. grandifiora is a shrub from two to three feet high with 
slender arching branches, small pointed leaves dark green and very lus- 
trous on the upper surface and paler on the lower surface, and axillary 
clusters of small pale pink tubular flowers. The leaves do not fall until 
the beginning of winter; and their semi-persistent character, the autum- 
nal flowers and excellent habit of this little plant make it a desirable 
subject for the rock garden or the margins of shrubberies. 
It is not, however, the occasional flowers which can be found in the 
Arboretum in the middle of October which chiefly make it interesting 
at this time, but the Autumn condition of the trees and shrubs which 
flower in the spring or summer. Valuable lessons in decorative garden- 
ing can now be learnt here, for nowhere else are the colors assumed 
by the fading leaves of hardy trees and shrubs more varied and interest- 
ing; no other part of the world can equal the northeastern United States 
in the abundance of the fruits produced by these plants, and in New 
England the most beautiful of ail autumn gardens can be made. 
