Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. VI 
NO. 2 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. MAY 10. 1920 
Asiatic Cherry-trees. When this copy of the Bulletin reaches its 
readers in eastern Massachusetts the principal display of flowers in the 
Arboretum will be made by some of the Cherry-trees of eastern Asia 
and by early-flowering Plum-trees. As in previous years, the earliest 
of these trees to flower this spring is Prunus concinna, a native of the 
mountains of central China where it was discovered by Wilson. Prunus 
concinna is a small tree which first flowered in the Arboretum when 
less than three feet high. The flowers, which are white with a red 
calyx, are less beautiful than those of several of the other Asiatic 
Cherry-trees, but they are produced in the greatest profusion and are 
not injured by spring frosts; and as small plants flower as freely as 
larger ones this Cherry well deserves a place in collections of spring- 
flowering trees and shrubs. The Japanese Prunus incisa has opened 
its flowers this spring only two or three days later than Prunus con- 
ciitna. It is a shrub or small tree with white or rarely pale rose-col- 
ored flowers which appear before the deeply lobed leaves unfold. The 
petals fall in a few days after the buds open but the calyx, which 
gradually grows red, remains on the fruit for two or three weeks and 
is decidedly showy. A form of this Cherry (var. Yanakei) with pure 
white petals and a bright green calyx is flowering for the first time in 
the Arboretum this spring. Although Prunus incisa is a common plant 
in Japan on the Hakkone Mountains and on Fuji-san, it has remained 
extremely rare in American and European gardens. It is in flower this 
year a few days earlier than the Chinese Prunus tomentosa, an early 
introduction of the Arboretum which has proved to be one of the hand- 
somest of the early spring flowering shrubs in the neighborhood of 
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