BULLETIN NO. 62. 
The flowers of woody plants are not common in this climate at the 
end of September, but visitors to the Arboretum will still find a few 
interesting plants in bloom. The most conspicuous, perhaps, is the 
Manchurian and north China Aralia chinensis which can be seen in 
the Aralia Group near the junction of the Meadow and Bussey Hill 
Roads. It is a near relative of the so-called Hercules’ Club ( Aralia 
spinosa) of our southern woods and, like the American plant, it has 
stems covered with prickles, large, compound, dark green leaves, and 
immense clusters of small white flowers which are followed by small 
shining black fruits. The American plant is not quite as hardy as its 
Asiatic relative, but it is now well established on the margin of the 
woods at the northern base of Hemlock Hill in the rear of the Laurels, 
where it is spreading by underground shoots. The plants are just past 
flowering. 
The Japanese Hydrangea pa.niculata and its monstrous form, on 
which all the flowers are sterile (var. grandiflora) are in bloom. The 
latter is one of the most generally planted shrubs in the United States, 
although it is a much less interesting and less beautiful plant than the 
still comparatively little known normal form. The two are growing 
side by side in the Shrub Collection. In the Shrub Collection, too, the 
handsome Elsholtzia Stauntonii is in full flower and now at its best. 
This member of the Mint Family, and a native of northeastern Asia, has 
long erect spikes of rosy pink flowers and light green foliage. One of 
the comparatively recent introductions of the Arboretum, it is only be- 
ginning to appear in American and European gardens. Near it in the 
Shrub Collection Vitex incisa from northern China is in flower. Al- 
though this plant is a native of a cold region the stems are often killed 
back to the ground here in severe winters, but as new stems grow 
several feet tall during the season, and as the flowers are produced on 
the new growth, this killing back improves rather than injures the 
flowering of this shrub which at this time of the year is attractive 
with its finely divided leaves and slender erect clusters of small rose- 
colored flowers. The flowers of the true Heathers ( Calluna ) have 
already passed but flowers may still be seen on the Cornish Heath, 
Erica vagans, and the Trumpet Creepers from the central and southern 
states are still producing flowers on the trellis at the eastern side of 
the Shrub Collection. 
On the upper side of Hemlock Path, near Centre Street, small plants 
of Gordonia Altamaha are now in bloom and during several weeks will 
continue to open their white cup-shaped flowers which resemble those 
of a single-flowered Camellia. This tree is a native of southern 
Georgia where it was discovered late in the eighteenth century. Al- 
though often hunted for, it has not been seen growing wild for more 
than a hundred years, and has only been preserved by the cultivated 
descendants of the plants introduced by its early discoverers. This 
Gordonia flourishes in the neighborhood of Philadelphia but it is not 
very hardy in the Arboretum, and it is surprising that it was unin- 
jured by the severity of last winter which destroyed so many hardier 
plants. On Hickory Path, near Centre Street, Indigofera amblyantha , 
which has been in flower for nearly three months, still continues to 
