26 
by the absence from the leaf stalks of the wing-like margins which 
are found on those of the other species. The clusters of pure white 
flowers are rather smaller than those of the others and the fruit is 
dark blue covered with a glaucous bloom, and remains on the branches 
until the beginning of winter. This is the common tree Viburnum of 
the middle states, only reaching New England in southwestern Con- 
necticut. It is perfectly hardy in the Arboretum where it has been 
blooming for two or three weeks and is now passing out of flower. 
The northern species. Viburnum Lentago, the Sheepberry or Nanny- 
berry, has broad and lustrous leaves and large clusters of creamy 
white flowers which are followed by sweet and rather juicy nearly 
black or dark blue fruits. This is a common northern tree or treelike 
shrub often twenty or thirty feet tall, and just now is a conspicuous 
feature in many parts of the Arboretum. The third arborescent 
species, V. rufidulum, is perhaps the most beautiful of all Viburnums. 
It is a southern tree which naturally does not grow further north than 
southern Virginia and southern Illinois; in the rich soil found along 
the borders of river-bottom lands in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkan- 
sas it is a tree often forty feet high with a tall straight trunk and 
widespreading branches forming a symmetrical round-topped head. 
The leaves of this tree are thick, dark green, and more lustrous than 
those of other deciduous-leaved Viburnums. The flowers are pure 
white and are borne in broad, flat-topped clusters, and the fruit is 
bright blue and covered with a glaucous bloom. This Viburnum can be 
distinguished from the other species by the rusty brown covering of 
hairs on the margins of the leaf-stalks, branches of the flower-clusters 
and winter-buds. It has long been an inhabitant of the Arboretum 
where, although it is hardy in sheltered positions, it is only a shrub 
and probably will never grow into a tree. The best specimen is on 
Hickory Path near Centre Street. Of the shrubby species now in 
flower attention is called to Viburnum pubescens, a plant with small 
pointed leaves and small compact clusters of white flowers which are 
followed by shining black fruits. There is a large compact group of 
this shrub on the right-hand side of the Bussey Hill Road opposite 
the upper end of the Lilac Group now entirely covered with flowers. 
No other Viburnum blooms more profusely. In the same border are 
now in flower three Viburnums of the Opulus section of the genus in 
which the cluster of fertile flowers is surrounded by a ring of large 
and showy, white, sterile flowers. On the whole, the handsomest of 
these three plants is the European Viburnum Opulus or Guelder Rose. 
The flower-clusters are smaller perhaps than those of the other species, 
but the plant grows to a larger size and is more compact in habit; the 
leaves remain on the branches much later in the season, and the fruit is 
larger and of a deeper color. The Snowball of old-fashioned gardens 
is a form of this plant in which all the flowers are sterile (var. sterile). 
There is a form with yellow fruit (var. xanthocarpum) and a dwarf form 
(var. nanum) which is a low, compact, little bush which rarely flowers. 
The American species, V. americanum or Cranberry-tree, is a plant of 
looser habit, with translucent orange-red fruit which hangs on the 
branches until early spring. The leaves turn in the autumn to bright 
shades of orange and scarlet. The species of northeastern Asia, V. 
Sargentiiy has larger sterile flowers than the other species and is de- 
