47 
however, the Arboretum has succeeded in obtaining a supply of the 
seeds from Japan, and as these have been widely distributed it will 
now perhaps soon become better known. 
Crataegus Phaenopyrum or cordata is in flower this week. Haw- 
thorns begin to flower in the Arboretum before the first of May and 
they have been flowering here almost continuously ever since. In a 
month some of the species will begin to ripen their fruit, and on others 
fruit little shrivelled or discolored by the winter will still be on the 
branches in April. There are not therefore many weeks in the year in 
which Hawthorns in this climate cannot furnish either flowers or fruit. 
In the tropics some trees produce flowers almost continuously during 
the year, but in cold countries like New England no other group of 
plants has such a long season of flowers except the Viburnums, and 
none of the Viburnums retain their fruit into the winter. When in 
bloom some of the American Hawthorns are objects of great beauty, 
and only the fruit of some Crabapples is more conspicuous than that 
of the large-fruited Hawthorns. As they grow naturally over a large 
part of eastern North America and more sparingly in the west there 
are few parts of this country or Canada where some of the species 
cannot be successfully grown. All the Thorns thrive in cultivation and 
respond to a generous treatment with larger size, more tree-like habit 
and handsomer foliage and fruit. Crataegus Phsenopyrum, which ap- 
pears at the head of this paragraph, the Washington Thorn, cultivated 
perhaps more frequently seventy-five years ago than at present, is a 
slender tree growing under favorable conditions to a height of twenty- 
five or thirty feet; the leaves are nearly triangular in shape, not more 
than two inches long and an inch and a half wide, and are dull green; 
in the autumn they turn bright scarlet. The flowers are creamy 
white, smaller than those of most Hawthorns, and are arranged in 
small compact clusters. Few if any of the American species have less 
attractive flowers. The fruit, too, is small, barely more than a quar- 
ter of an inch in diameter; and the Washington Thorn owes its value 
as a garden plant to the brilliancy of its autumn foliage and to the 
beauty of its abundant fruits long persistent on the branches. In 
earlier days of American gardens Crataegus Phaenopyrum was much 
used as a hedge plant in the middle states, although there are many 
other American Hawthorns which seem much better suited to form 
handsome and impassable hedges. 
The last Viburnums. The first Viburnum, V. alnifolium, was in 
bloom the first of May, and this week the last Viburnum, another 
American species, V. Canhyi, has just opened its flowers, and during 
more than two months there has not been a day when a Viburnum has 
not flowered in the Arboretum. V . Canbyi is the largest and the hand- 
somest of the blue-fruited species of eastern North America, of which 
the best known now in gardens is V. dentatum. There are three spe- 
cies in this group; they all have broad, coarsely toothed, dark green 
shining leaves, wide, flat clusters of white flowers and small blue fruits. 
The first to flower, Viburnum dentatum, is followed by V. venosum 
which differs from it chiefly in the hairs which cover the young branch- 
lets and the lower surface of the leaves. This is a sea coast plant and 
