8 
Amelanchiers are beginning to flower and in a few days the Arbor- 
etum will be gay with the white flowers of these trees and shrubs 
which have been largely planted here along the margins of woods and 
by the borders of the drives. The species which has been most largely 
used in this way here is the shrubby A. ohlongifolia, which grows natur- 
ally in the Arboretum w’here a large native specimen can be seen on the 
margin of the meadow across the path from the general collection of 
these plants which occupies the border between the Meadow Road and 
the parallel grass path on the left-hand side entering from the Jamaica 
Plain Gate. Another native species, A. laevis, is a tree sometimes 
forty feet high and easily distinguished from ail other species by the 
red color of the unfolding leaves which are destitute of any covering 
of down. There are some large-sized native trees of this species on 
the wooded bank in the rear of the Crabapple Collection on the Forest 
Hills Road. The earliest species in the collection to flower is another 
tree and perhaps the largest in the whole genus, A. canadensis, which 
is widely distributed from western New York to Louisiana, and the 
only Amelanchier or Shad Bush in the southern states. 
Ribes tenue. This is one of the Currants introduced by Wilson from 
central and western China, where it is a common plant on the moun- 
tains at high altitudes, and a shrub four or five feet high. There are 
several specimens in the Arboretum, but the handsomest is in the col- 
lection of Chinese shrubs on the southern slopes of Bussey Hill. The 
plant is now covered with short erect clusters of dull yellow flowers 
which will be followed by bright red, lustrous, juicy fruits. The fruit 
is sweeter than that of the common red-flowered garden Currant and 
this plant may prove to be valuable for its fruit, or to cross with the 
garden Currants. As an early spring-flowering shrub it deserves a 
place in northern gardens. 
The yellow-flowered American Currants are still perhaps the most 
attractive of the Currants and Gooseberries which can be grown in this 
climate. The better known of these, the so-called Missouri Currant 
{Ribes odoratum) is often cultivated in the United States and is found 
in many old gardens. It owes its popular name to the fact that it was 
first found on the upper Missouri River, but it is now known to occur 
on the great plains from South Dakota to Texas. This plant is often 
called in books Ribes aureum, but this name belongs to a plant with 
smaller flowers and black or orange-colored fruits. This beautiful plant 
is rarely cultivated in American gardens. The two plants are growing 
together in the general Shrub Collection, and the difference in their 
general appearance and in the structure of the flowers can readily be 
seen. 
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