Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. II 
NO. I 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. MAY 5. 1916 
Effects of the winter in the Arboretum. The high temperature of 
January started the development of the flower-buds of some plants, 
for example those of the Silver Maple {Acer saccharinum) which was 
in full flower on the first day of February, or several weeks before 
the usual time. January was followed by two months of cold weather 
and frequent snowstorms. The snow protected small plants which 
without this covering would probably have suffered, and the number 
of plants that have been killed or seriously injured in the Arboretum 
is surprisingly small. The flower-buds, however, of many plants have 
been entirely or partially killed, while other plants which in an ordi- 
nary season lose their buds have not suffered and promise to yield un- 
usual crops of flowers. The flower-buds of all Peach trees are killed 
but those of the Plums and Crabapples appear to be uninjured. The 
spring is from ten to twelve days later than usual. 
Rhododendrons have suffered less than they did in the winter of 
1914-15. Occasionally a leaf has been browned or a small branch killed, 
but apparently a good many flower-buds have suffered and the prospect 
for flowers is not so good as usual. Rhododendron ponticum, which 
usually suffers in this climate, appears to be killed outright. This 
plant which is so hardy in England, where it sometimes becomes a 
troublesome weed, has seriously interfered with the successful cultiva- 
tion of Rhododendrons in this part of the world, for it has been used 
in European nurseries as stock on which is grafted the hybrids and 
varieties of other species, and the hardiness and vigor of many of 
these plants has been unfavorably influenced by this tender stock. A 
little hybrid Rhododendron known as R. praecox, “Little Gem,” is per- 
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