23 
for the rock garden. This variety, Mr. Wilson tells us, is the common 
Cotoneaster of the moorlands of western Hupeh. C. adpressa, which 
is the dwarfest of these plants, is distinguished from C. Korizontalis 
by its thinner and less lustrous leaves, larger fruit which ripens sev- 
eral weeks earlier, and by its creeping and often rooting stems which 
form a dense carpet closely appressed to the ground. There are few 
shrubs better suited for the rock garden. Most of the Chinese Coton- 
easters are with the other new Chinese shrubs on the southern slope 
of Bussey Hill. On Hickory Path, near Centre Street, can be seen 
the largest plant of C. horizontalis in the Arboretum, several plants 
of C. adpressa and some other species. 
Berberis verruculosa, an evergreen Barberry discovered by Wilson in 
western Szechuan, is flowering freely for the first time in the Arbor- 
etum. It is a small shrub with slender, arching stems, thickly covered 
with dark brown excrescences, small oval leaves dark green and very 
lustrous on the upper surface and pale below, and small golden yellow 
flowers which are solitary or produced in few-flowered clusters. The 
berries are black, oblong or bottle-shaped and covered with a glaucous 
bloom. On its native mountains this Barberry is said sometimes to 
grow three feet tall, but the plants in the Arboretum are only a few 
inches high. These plants have now been growing for several years 
on the exposed southern slope of Bussey Hill where they have never 
been injured. Berberis verruculosa appears to be the hardiest and for 
this climate it is probably the most valuable of the Chinese evergreen 
species. The small size and com.pact habit make it a good subject for 
the rock garden. 
Aesculus discolor. It is fortunate that the scarlet-flowered variety 
(var. mollis) of this Buckeye is hardy here, for the flowers are not 
surpassed in brilliancy by the flowers of any other Horsechestnut. On 
the typical Aesculus discolor the flowers have a red calyx and yellow 
petals generally more or less flushed with rose. This is a much less 
common plant than the variety mollis on which both the calyx and 
the corolla are bright red. This is a very common plant in Georgia 
and Alabama and ranges west to southeastern Missouri and to eastern 
Texas. It is the only red-flowered Buckeye which has been found west 
of the Mississippi River, and it sometimes reaches the size and assumes 
the habit of a small tree. On the Edwards Plateau in western Texas 
there is a yellow-flowered form (var. flavescens) which, because it has 
yellow flowers, was long mistaken by botanists for the Appalachian 
tree Buckeye, Aesculus octandra. Aesculus discolor and its varieties 
can be distinguished from the other American species by the soft cov- 
ering of pale down on the lower surface of the leaflets, and from all 
species of the genus except Aesculus californica by the pale orange- 
brown color of the seeds. Aesculus discolor, var. mollis is just coming 
into flower in the large bed in the rear of the Horsechestnut Group on 
the right-hand side of the Meadow Road. Here it is growing with 
several plants of 
