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they flower in the spring before the leaves appear or when they are 
partly grown, or, as in the case of a few species, when the trees are 
nearly fully grown, the period of flowering of the different species ex- 
tending through several weeks. The species all have handsome flowers, 
with long delicate white petals, and small, dark blue, or nearly black 
pome-like fruit open at the top, with flesh which in most of the species 
is sweet and edible. It is these edible fruits which probably have 
earned for these plants one of their popular names. Service Berry. 
Shad Bush, another of their popular names, came from the fact that 
they were in flower when the shad began to ascend the rivers flowing 
into the Atlantic Ocean. Amelanchier canadensis, the first species to 
bloom in the Arboretum, has been in flower for several days. It is a 
tree which occasionally grows to the height of sixty feet with a tall 
trunk eighteen inches in diameter. The leaves begin to unfold as the 
flowers open and are then covered with pale gray silky hairs, making 
the whole plant look white at this time of the year. This beautiful 
tree does not grow naturally nearer Boston than the western part of 
the state; it is common in western New York, and it is the common 
and often the only species in the southern states in which it grows to 
the Gulf coast. Owing to an old confusion in determination and names 
this fine tree, which was originally named by Linnaeus, has been rare 
in gardens, ati entirely different plant having long appeared in books and 
gardens under the name of Amelanchier canadensis. This is also a 
fine tree, differing conspicuously from A. canadensis in the red color 
of the young leaves which are destitute or nearly destitute of any hairy 
covering. This tree is now called by botanists A. laevis. It is one of 
the native trees of the Arboretum, and there are a number of specimens 
growing naturally on the bank above the Crabapples on the left-hand 
side of the Forest Hills Road which begin to flower a few days later 
than A. canadensis, and are easily recognized by the color of the young 
leaves. Another species which is a native plant in the Arboretum, A. 
obovalis, is a large shrub rather than a tree with young leaves like 
those of A. canadensis covered with white silky hairs. Large numbers 
of this shrub have been planted along the drives and in the other Ar- 
boretum shrubberies; they will still be in bloom when this Bulletin reaches 
its Boston readers and will make this week one of the pleasantest of 
the year to visit the Arboretum. Five or six other species of the east- 
ern states are now well established in the Arboretum collection on the 
grass path which follows the left-hand side of the Meadow Road; they 
are small shrubs rarely more than five or six feet high, in some species 
spreading from the roots into clumps of considerable size. They are 
all delightful plants well suited for the decoration of small gardens or 
the margins of shrubberies. Generally, however, they are unknown to 
garden lovers. 
Some Early-flowering Viburnums. The first Viburnum to bloom in 
the Arboretum this year is Viburnum alnifolium, the Hobble Bush or 
Moosewood of cold, wet northern woods. It is a large shrub spreading 
by shoots from the roots, with broad flat clusters of small flowers sur- 
rounded by a ring of large pure white neutral flowers, dark green leaves 
with prominent veins, which turn orange and scarlet in the autumn. 
