attractive of all the dwarf conifers. Some of the best of these are vari- 
ety Clanbrasiliana, a low bush seldom more than six feet high, var. 
Gregoriana, usually not more than one to two feet high, and the varie- 
ties pumila and pygmaea both of exceedingly dwarf habit. Of,our native 
Black Spruce ( Picea Mariana) the var. Doumettii is a compact pyrami- 
dal plant which does not often grow more than ten or twelve feet tall 
and is of bluish color. An interesting dwarf form of the Rocky Moun- 
tain Blue Spruce. (P. pungens or Parryana , or as it should be called, 
P. Menziesii ) appeared several years ago in the Arboretum nurseries 
and promises to be valuable as a decorative plant; it has not yet received 
a name. There is in cultivation, too, a dwarf of the Spruce tree of the 
Caucasus (P. orientalis ) which, however, is little known in collections, 
and in the Arboretum collection are two plants of a dwarf Douglas 
Spruce. 
The genus Abies, the Firs, have as yet produced few dwarf forms. 
The best known is probably the dwarf of the Balsam Fir of northeastern 
North America (A. balsamifera), known in gardens as A. Hudsonica , a 
very dwarf and not particularly attractive plant. There is a dwarf 
pyramidal form of the Fir of central Europe ( A . Picea) but this after 
a few years is apt to lose its dwarf habit and grow into a tall tree. A 
dwarf form of the Rocky Mountain A. lasiocarpa was raised several 
years ago in the Arboretum and is still a true dwarf in habit, although 
grafts taken from this plant are beginning to assume the narrow pyram- 
idal habit of the species. The original plant can be seen in the bed of 
dwarfs on Conifer Path where there are three grafted plants of the 
dwarf Rocky Mountain Blue Spruce. 
The common Hemlock of the eastern states ( Tsuga canadensis) has 
a strong tendency to seminal variation, and dwarf and other abnormal 
forms of this tree often occur in the woods. The most distinct and 
interesting of these is a compact form with closely appressed pendulous 
branches forming a broad, low round-topped mass. Many years ago 
four or five plants of this form were found by the late Joseph Howland 
of Mattapan, New York, on one of the mountains back of Fishkill Land- 
ing on the Hudson River and were named by him Sargent’s Hemlock for 
his friend and neighbor Henry Winthrop Sargent. Only one or perhaps 
two of these wild plants are now living, although the variety has been 
much propagated by nurserymen by grafting its branches on the com- 
mon Hemlock. These grafted plants, as they grow more rapidly and are 
of more open habit, are less compact and less beautiful than the original 
seedlings. The plant in the Arboretum among the large collection of 
dwarf Hemlocks on Hemlock Hill Road is a grafted plant, but at Holm 
Lea in Brookline there is one of General Howland’s original plants. 
The beautiful Carolina Hemlock (T. caroliniana) has not been very 
largely cultivated, but among the plants in the Arboretum Pinetum 
near the corner of Centre and Walter Streets are two plants which look 
as if they were true dwarfs as they are less than one-quarter of the size 
of the other trees of the same age growing with them and show no 
tendency to form an upright stem. 
The Bulletins will now be discontinued until the spring. 
The Arboretum will be grateful for any publicity 
given these Bulletins. 
