have been raised between R. catawbiense and R. maximum the best 
known is Delicatissimum. This blooms later than the Catawbiense 
hybrids; it is a large plant, of good habit, with long lustrous leaves 
and pale pink and white flowers, and one of the best Rhododendrons 
which can be grown in this climate. 
The experience of another year confirms the good opinion which the 
Caucasian Rhododendron Smirnowii has made for itself here. It is a 
large plant with pale green leaves covered below with a thick mat of 
nearly white wool and large clusters of bright pink flowers. It grows 
best in partial shade as the hot sun of our summer causes the leaves 
to curl. A number of hybrids have been obtained in Europe by cross- 
ing this species with some of the Catawbiense hybrids. Some of these 
hybrids are established in the Arboretum and have flowered for several 
years, but the cold of the past winter has destroyed their flower-buds. 
Rhododendron caucasicum and its hybrids or varieties should be more 
often found in our gardens, in which the form of this species known 
as Boule de Neige is the only one usually seen. Like the other forms 
of R. caucasicum it is a small compact plant which covers itself with 
clusters of large white flowers which open earlier than those of most 
of the Catawbiense hybrids. This earliness, its good habit, and its 
handsome pure white flowers make this a desirable garden plant in 
this climate. Another plant of this race with pale yellow flowers, 
known as R. coriaceum, is now in flower in the collection and is also a 
hardy and desirable plant. A smaller plant of this race, Mont Blanc, 
is interesting as the flowers, which are bright pink when they open, 
become at the end of a day or two pure white. On some of the 
dwarf forms of R. caucasicum the flower-buds have been injured this 
year for the first time, but in spite of this these plants can be recom- 
mended for New England gardens. 
Attention is called to the red-flowered Aesculus Briotii, an improved 
form of the so-called Red-flowered Horsechestnut, Aesculus carnea, a 
supposed hybrid between the European Horsechestnut and A. Pavia of 
the southern United States. Aesculus Briotii is the handsomest of the 
red-flowered arborescent Horsechestnuts and should find a place in all 
collections of trees with showy flowers. A beautiful, shrubby, red- 
flowered Horsechestnut, or Buckeye as these plants are called in the 
United States, is in flower in the Horsechestnut Group on the right- 
hand side of the Meadow Road. This plant is now known to grow 
naturally from Georgia and Alabama to Texas and Arkansas and to be 
the only red-flowered species in the region west of the Mississippi River. 
First discovered in Arkansas many years ago by the botanist Nuttall, 
it was named by Rafinesque Aesculus mollis; later another botanist 
called it Aesculus austrina. In the Arboretum it is called A. discolor 
var. mollis because it is believed to be only a variety of another southern 
species, A. discolor , with which it grows in Georgia and Alabama. But 
whatever name may be imposed on it this Buckeye is one of the hand- 
somest flowering shrubs in the United States, and it is fortunate that 
it has proved perfectly hardy here. Flowering with it is another south- 
ern shrubby species with red and yellow flowers, in short, very compact 
clusters, A. georgiana , which is a garden plant of much promise. Three 
other dwarf Buckeyes are also in flower, Aesculus humilis , two differ- 
ent plants under the name of A. rosea nana, and A. Michauxii. They 
are small plants with yellow and red flowers occasionally cultivated in 
