36 
by small red fruits. A green fountain best describes this shrub. There 
are Barberries with larger and handsomer leaves, larger flowers, and 
more brilliant fruit, but there is not one in this collection, at least, of 
such graceful habit; and Berberis Vernae as it grows here is not only 
one of the most beautiful of the deciduous-leaved species of the genus 
but one of the handsomest of the shrubs discovered in China during 
the present century which can be successfully grown in this climate. 
Plants of Berberis Vernae raised from seed collected by William Purdom 
in Min-chou in western Kansu, received at the Arboretum in 1912, are 
also well established here. 
Neillia sinensis, uninjured by the severe winter, has been as beauti- 
ful as usual this month. The flowers are cylindric, clear pale pink, 
nearly half an inch long and are pendent on slender stems in long one- 
sided racemes terminal on short lateral branchlets, and do not open until 
the dark green leaves have grown to nearly their full size. This is one 
of the Chinese shrubs which seems destined to become popular in north- 
ern gardens. Several other species of Neillia are growing in the Arbor- 
etum; they are either not hardy enough to flower or their flowers are 
insignificant. 
Kolkwitzia amabilis on the southern slope of Bussey Hill has not 
before flowered so profusely as it has during the past week. It is the 
only representative of a genus of western China related to Diervilla 
and Abelia.. The flowers are in pairs on long stems at the end of short 
lateral branchlets, and rose color in the bud become paler after open- 
ing and are blotched with yellow at the base of the inner surface of 
the divisions of the lower lobe of the corolla. Kolkwitzia has not yet 
produced seeds in the Arboretum, and this interesting and beautiful 
shrub is still rare in American gardens. 
Aesculus discolor var. mollis. This shrub or small tree has not be- 
fore flowered so freely in the Arboretum. The type of the species 
has red and yellow flowers, but in the var. mollis, which is the 
only form in the Arboretum, the whole flower is bright scarlet. It is 
a common plant from northern Georgia to central Alabama and west- 
ward to the valley of the Guadalupe River in Texas, ranging west of 
the Mississippi River northward to southeastern Missouri, and appear- 
ing in southwestern Tennessee. In early spring no other plant in the 
southern states is more brilliantly conspicuous, and its unexpected har- 
diness in New England is one of the important discoveries made by the 
Arboretum in recent years. There is a form of Aesculus discolor (var. 
Jiavescens) with yellow flowers which is confined to the Edwards Plateau 
in western Texas. It is possible that this plant may also prove hardy 
here. Aesculus Harbisonii, which is believed to be a hybrid of A. 
discolor var. mollis and A. georgiana, is the last of the Buckeyes, with 
the exception of A. parvijiora, to bloom in the Arboretum. It is a 
shrub with broad clusters of large flowers with a rose-colored calyx 
and canary yellow petals tinged with rose toward the margin. Still 
extremely rare, this hybrid which is perfectly hardy deserves to be 
better known. 
