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fectly hardy here but it blooms so early that in about nine years out 
of ten the flowers after they open are spoiled by frost. This year not 
a flower-bud has been injured and the plants are now in flower. 
Forsythias. Many flower-buds of these plants have been killed as 
they were two years ago. All the flower-buds in the lower part of 
the great Forsythia bed on the slope above the Bussey Hill Road are 
entirely killed, while on the plants in the upper part of this bed, al- 
though many buds have suffered, there are open flowers enough to 
make this part of the bed conspicuous. In the lower ground of the 
general Shrub Collection the flower-buds of all the species and varie- 
ties of Forsythia have been entirely killed with the exception of those 
of the Albanian F. europaea which are uninjured. If the flower-buds 
of this species are better able to support cold than those of the other 
species, which are all natives of eastern continental Asia, the European 
plant should be better known and more generally cultivated. One of 
the last plants discovered in Europe, it is a vigorous, fast-growing 
shrub with more erect stems and branches than are usually found in 
the other species of this genus. The flowers are not quite so showy 
as those of F. suspensa and its hybrids and varieties, but they are 
always abundantly produced and of good color. This plant is still rare 
in gardens and it is doubtful if it can be found in American nurseries. 
Magnolias. The Japanese shrubby species. Magnolia stellata, is 
usually the first of the Magnolias to flower in the Arboretum and the 
petals are sometimes browned by a late frost. This year many of the 
flower-buds have been killed and only a few flowers much reduced in 
size are now open on these beautiful and usually satisfactory plants. 
Some flowers are now open on the northern form of the Japanese 
M. kobus (var. borealis). This is a shapely tree, with small drooping 
flowers which open before the appearance of the leaves, and good 
foliage, but it never flowers here very freely and this year there are 
fewer flowers than usual. As a flowering tree for this climate it is 
inferior to the white-flowered Chinese species, M. conspicua, or as it 
now to be called, M. denudaia, and its hybrids, which also flower before 
the appearance of the leaves and are not yet in flower. 
Witch Hazels. The earliest of the Witch Hazels, H. vernalis, a na- 
tive of southern Missouri and of Arkansas, opened its first flowers 
during the last week of December and these were followed in January 
and February by the flowers of the Chinese and Japanese species which 
were not affected by a temperature of several degrees below zero. In 
the size and color of its flowers and in foliage the Chinese H. mollis 
is the handsomest of these winter-flowering shrubs. It is hardy, fast- 
growing and free-flowering, and might well find a place in every gar- 
den where it can be seen from the windows of country or city houses. 
Unfortunately this shrub is still difficult to obtain from American 
nurseries. 
The Cornelian Cherry {Cornus mas) is one of the earliest trees or 
arborescent shrubs to flower here. The flowers are light yellow and 
