BULLETIN NO. 49. 
Persons interested in the plants best suited for the decoration of 
parks and gardens of eastern North America can find much to learn 
in the Arboretum from this time until the end of the year, for it is in. 
the autumn that conifers are seen to the best advantage and that the 
mature leaves of the few broad-leaved evergreens which flourish in 
this climate best show the beauty and value of these plants for the 
late autumn and winter garden. Perhaps nowhere else in the world 
are so many different plants with brilliant autumn foliage and hand- 
some and abundant autumn fruits assembled as in the Arboretum; and 
in no other garden can such plants be so easily and conveniently 
studied. Such plants give a character and beauty to the autumn gar- 
den which can be found only in eastern North America and perhaps in 
Japan where the leaves of many of the native trees and shrubs assume 
brilliant colors before they fall. In the Arboretum the autumn foliage 
of many Japanese plants is as brilliant as it is in their native country, 
but it is still to be shown if that of American plants cultivated in 
Japan is as beautiful there as it is in our eastern states. 
The earliest of the American trees to change the color of its leaves 
this year is the Red or Scarlet Maple, Acer rubrum. On trees grow- 
ing in swamps the leaves are now often bright scarlet, while on trees 
growing on higher and drier ground the leaves are still bright green or 
only slightly tinged with red. The so-called Water Willow, Decodon 
verticillatus, perhaps better known as Nesaea, is a native of all the 
region from Maine to Florida and Louisiana, and is a shrub with arch- 
ing stems from two to three feet long growing only in the wet often sub- 
merged borders of streams and ponds where it often spreads into broad 
thickets. The flowers and fruits are not conspicuous, but the stems 
hanging over the water make an interesting and attractive margin to 
a shallow pond or sluggish stream, and in early autumn the leaves turn 
bright scarlet, so that for a few weeks the plants are conspicuous 
among the green sedges and swamp grasses with which they are usu- 
ally associated. It is not probable that the Water Willow is often 
cultivated, but it is now well established in the Arboretum along the 
margins of two of the little ponds near the junction of the Meadow 
and Bussey Hill Roads. 
The leaves of some of the forms of the so-called Virginia Creeper of 
eastern North America are already bright scarlet. The earliest to 
adopt its autumn dress and now in brilliant color is Parthenocissus 
vitacea. This plant rarely has adhesive discs at the ends of the ten- 
drils, so that it cannot attach itself to the trunks of trees or to brick 
and stone walls like Parthenocissus quinquefolia, which is often sold in 
nurseries as Ampelopsis Engelmannii. Of this plant there are several 
varieties recognized by botanists. On the variety hirsuta the young 
branches, tendrils and leaves are covered with soft down, and a form 
of this variety which grows in the neighborhood of Ontario in Canada 
appears to be the best of all the Virginia Creepers for covering brick 
walls. Fine plants of this form can be seen on some of the buildings 
at the Central Experimental Farm of the Dominion of Canada at 
Ottawa. The variety San Paulii , which is the common form in Illinois 
and Missouri, also attaches itself to walls and grows rapidly to a great 
