Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. VI 
NO. 3 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. MAY 14. 1920 
Amelanchiers. The forests of eastern North America surpass those 
of other regions of the northern hemisphere in the number of small 
trees and shrubs which enliven them with beautiful and often conspic- 
uous flowers. Eastern North America is the home of the Hawthorns 
which grow here in an almost unbelievable number of species with in- 
numerable individuals; in the Missouri-Texas region are more species 
and varieties of Plums, great and small, than in all the other countries 
of the world; in early spring swamps and their borders and low woods 
are gay with the bright yellow flowers on the leafless branches of the 
Spice Bush {Benzoin aestivate), the Leatherwood {Dirca palustris) and 
the Fragrant Sumach {Rhus canadensis). No other part of the world can 
boast a forest undergrowth more beautiful than that made by the so- 
called Flowering Dogwood {Cornus florida), one of the commonest of the 
small trees in all the region from southern New England to eastern Texas. 
Even Japan cannot make a braver and more varied show of Azaleas than 
our south Atlantic and Gulf States; poor in Rhododendrons and these of 
comparative insigniflcance, in its Laurel {Kalmia latifolia) eastern 
America possesses a broad-leaved evergreen shrub or small tree which 
grows naturally from New Brunswick to Louisiana and is not surpassed 
by many plants in the beauty of its flowers. Amelanchier is another 
plant in which North America has almost a monopoly; one small shrubby 
species grows on the mountains of central Europe, and there is an- 
other shrubby species in China and Japan. All the other species are 
natives of North America where Amelanchiers grow with many species 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Newfoundland to the Gulf 
States. Some of the species are trees and others large or small shrubs 
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