A plant of Viburnum bracteatum, on Hickory Path near Centre 
Street, will soon be in flower. This is the rarest of American Vibur- 
nums, being known to grow naturally only on the cliffs of the Coosa 
River near Rome, Georgia, where it is a tall shrub with numerous 
slender stems. With it on Hemlock Path is a plant of the form of 
Viburnum pubescens from southern Missouri and Arkansas which has 
sometimes been called V. ajjine. Another exceedingly rare species, 
V. molle, from southern Kentucky and southern Missouri, with large, 
nearly round thick leaves on long stems, will also soon be in flower. 
It is in the general Viburnum Group on the Bussey Hill Road near its 
junction with the Valley Road and near the Centre Street entrance. 
Viburnum americamim is one of the species with palmately lobed 
leaves, flat flower-clusters surrounded by a ring of showy white ray 
flowers, and red fruits; it is a tall broad shrub common in northern 
woods and particularly ornamental late in the autumn when the leaves 
turn yellow and orange color and the brilliant translucent fruits, which 
sometimes remain on the plants through the winter, are very conspic- 
uous. There are two other species of this particular group now in 
flower, V. Opulus and V. Sargentii. The former is a native of north- 
ern Europe and Siberia; the flower-clusters are smaller than those of 
the American species but it is a larger and handsomer shrub with 
thicker and darker green leaves which fall later in the autumn, and 
rather larger, darker colored fruit. There is a variety of this plant 
with yellow fruit (var. xanthocarpum) ; another variety is a low, dense 
little bush (var. nanum ) which very seldom flowers. The old-fashioned 
Snowball or Guelder Rose is a variety of V. Opulus with all the flowers 
sterile. V. Sargentii is a common shrub in northeastern Asia and when 
it is in flower it is the handsomest of these three species, for the ray 
flowers are larger than those of the American or the European plant. 
The dark green leaves with the long, narrow terminal lobes are inter- 
esting, but the fruit of this plant is comparatively small, dull-colored, 
and much less attractive than that of the other species. 
A little later Viburnum cassinoides will be in flower. To many per- 
sons this tall shrub of northern swamps and swamp borders is consid- 
ered the handsomest of the American Viburnums. In cultivation it is 
a rather low, broad plant. The leaves, which vary greatly in shape 
and size on different individuals, are thick and dark green; the flowers 
are creamy white and are arranged in large or small convex clusters 
and are followed by drooping fruits which, when fully grown, at first 
green, gradually turn flesh color or pink and finally dark blue, and 
are covered with a glaucous bloom, the fruit of the different colors 
sometimes appearing together in the same cluster. This plant takes 
kindly to cultivation and has been largely planted in the roadside 
shrubberies. Among the individuals in the large group of this species 
in the general Viburnum Group on Bussey Hill Road can be seen its 
leaf variations. The southern relative of V. cassinoides , V. nudum, 
has never become established in the Arboretum, although as it grows 
at high altitudes on the Appalachian Mountains it should prove hardy 
in New England. 
