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and not trees there are in the Arboretum only Q. prinoides and a few 
of the Rocky Mountain species which grow very slowly and give little 
promise of success. Some of the handsomest of the American Oaks, 
including all the species confined to the southern states, to the Pacific 
coast region, and to Arizona and New Mexico, cannot be seen growing 
in the Arboretum. No evergreen Oak can support this climate, and 
the Oaks of western Europe are usually short-lived in eastern America. 
The deciduous leaved Oaks of Japan, Korea, and northern and western 
China grow well in the Arboretum, and some of the species produce 
good crops of fruit. The largest Asiatic Oaks in the Arboretum are 
plants of Quercus variabilis and Q. dentata on Oak Path near its 
southern end. The principal collection of Asiatic Oaks, hov/ever, is on 
the southern slope of Bussey Hill, between Azalea Path and the Bussey 
Mansion. In the mixed plantation near the summit of Peter’s Hill are 
many Oak-trees, including large plants of the Japanese species. Scat- 
tered through the Oak-plantations are several hybrids of American 
species, and no opportunity is lost to increase the number of these 
hybrids which are now known to occur between various species growing 
in different parts of the country. All of these hybrids are interesting, 
and some of them are handsome trees, like Quercus Comptonae, for 
example, a hybrid of Quercus lyrata and the southern Live Oak, 'Quer- 
cus virginiana), one of the most splendid Oak trees of America but 
unfortunately of too tender blood to bear the rigor of a northern winter. 
The early spring is one of the seasons when our northern Oaks can 
be studied to good advantage, for the color of the very young leaves 
and the amount and character of their hairy covering is different on 
each species. These characters are constant from year to year, and it 
is easier to distinguish, for example, a Black Oak {Quercus velutina) 
from a Scarlet Oak (Q. coccinea) by the unfolding leaves than it is by 
the mature leaves, which on some individuals of these species are hardly 
distinguishable. The young leaves of Oak-trees, apart from their scien- 
tific interest, appeal to persons interested in the beauties of nature, 
for some of them are exquisite in color, and more beautiful even than 
in the late autumn when the leaves of several of our Oaks are brilliant 
features of the American forest. 
Cornus florida, which adds so much to the woodland beauty of east- 
ern North America from southern New England to Texas, was covered 
here last autumn with inflorescence-buds which appear during the sum- 
mer on short stems at the end of the branchlets between the upper 
pair of leaves, and consist of a cluster of minute flower- buds enclosed 
in four scales which are brown and more or less hairy during the win- 
ter; in spring the stalk of inflorescence lengthens from a quarter of an 
inch to an inch and a half, and the scales which have protected the 
flower-buds open and expand, turn pure white and form a flat corolla- 
like cup from three to four inches in diameter. The enlarged pure 
white scales which surround the flower-clusters are the conspicuous 
part of the inflorescense, for the flowers themselves are minute and 
yellow-green. On many of the trees this spring in the neighborhood 
of Boston the white scales are discolored by dirty red-brown streaks 
which make the trees seen from a short distance appear pink. The 
