20 
the eastern American tree. Cornus kovsa blooms three or four weeks 
later than Cornus fiorida, and the flower-buds have not been injured 
here in the coldest winters. The leaves turn scarlet in the autumm 
when the plants are conspicuous from the red clusters of fruit hanging 
on long stalks. This small Japanese tree is still too seldom seen in 
our gardens. The best specimen in the neighborhood of Boston is in 
Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge; on a Long Island estate there is 
a grove of perhaps a hundred trees which in the autumn when covered 
with fruit make a wonderful display of color. The form of Cornus 
kousa discovered by Wilson in western China has now flow’ered in the 
Chinese Collection on Bussey Hill for three or four years and promises 
to be even a handsomer plant than the Japanese type, for the scales 
of the inflorescence are broader and closer together, and so form a 
more complete involucral cup. The Arboretum plant has already pro- 
duced fertile seeds and this beautiful tree will probably in a few years 
be more common in American gardens. 
Azaleas. The large orange red flowers of Rhododendron {Azalea) 
japonicum are fast opening, and although the plants on the lower side 
of Azalea' Path are not as full of flow^ers this spring as usual there are 
flowers enough to show their beauty. Rhododendron japonicum is a com- 
mon shrub on grass-covered foothills of the mountains of central Japan 
where it is a vigorous shrub from three to six feet high with stout 
erect stems and clustered flowers from an inch and a half to two inches 
in diameter which open as the leaves unfold. More beautiful is the 
hybrid .Azalea Louisa Hunnewell iRh hiod.ndron Kosterianum V3x. Louisa 
Hunnewell) which was raised at Wellesley by crossing R. japonicum vnth 
R. molle (the R. siaense of many authors), and is the handsomest of the 
hybrid Azaleas. A number of plants of this hybrid are now in flower 
on the lower side of Oak Path near its junction with Azalea Path, 
and opposite a group of plants of Rhododendron japonicum. On the 
lower side of Oak Path, near the junction with Azalea Path, plants of a 
hybrid between Rhododendron ohtusum amoenum (the well known 
Azalea amoena of gardens) and R. ohtusum Kaempferi {Azalea Kaemp- 
feri) are now in bloom. This hybrid was raised at the Arboretum sev- 
eral years ago by Jackson Dawson and has been named Rhododendron 
Arnoldhanum. The plants are dwarf in habit and the flowers on the 
different plants vary in color between that of the flowers of the two 
parents. A few of the plants in this group are worth propagating for 
the edges of beds and for the rock garden. 
Two American Azaleas. Plants of Rhododendron nudijiorum and R. 
roseum are in bloom on the lower side of Azalea Path, and the groups 
of these plants which are now side by side afford opportunity for the 
study of these two New England Azaleas. The flowers of R. nudifio- 
rum, which are pale pink and open a few days earlier than those of 
R. roseum, have not the fragrance which adds so much to the value 
of the rose-colored flowers of R. roseum. The fact that this plant can 
grow in soil strongly impregnated with lime will make its cultivation 
possible, it is hoped, in parts of the country where, on account of lime 
in the soil, no other Rhododendron can be kept alive. 
