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Viburnum prunifolium, which is known popularly as the Black Haw, 
is a common shrub in the middle Atlantic states where in early spring, 
on rocky hillsides and along roadsides and the borders of woods, it 
rivals in the beauty of its flowers the Flowering Dogwood {Cornvs 
florida) which naturally grows in open woods and not in such exposed 
situations as the Black Haw. Vihurnum nudifiorum is a large arbor- 
escent shrub or a small tree rarely thirty feet high, with a short trunk 
usually less than a foot in diameter, rigid spreading branches beset 
with slender spine-like branchlets, ovate to suborbicular, thick, dark 
green and lustrous leaves which, handsome through the summer, are 
splendid in the autumn with their dark vinous red or scarlet colors. 
The white flowers in slightly convex clusters have been produced here 
this spring in the greatest profusion; in the autumn they will be fol- 
lowed by red-stemmed drooping clusters of dark blue fruits covered 
with a glaucous bloom, and from half an inch to three-quarters of an 
inch long. The Black Haw, which is one of the handsomest of the 
small trees of the eastern' United States, takes kindly to cultivation 
and is quite hardy north of the region of its natural distribution which 
is in southern Connecticut. It has generally escaped the attention of 
American nurserymen who in recent years have made better known our 
northern arborescent Viburnum Lentago, the Sheepberry or Nanny- 
berry, a usually larger and for some persons a handsomer plant. The 
flowers, which are arranged in larger and rather flatter clusters, are 
pale cream color and not white, but the fruit is as handsome as that 
of the Black Haw and rather larger. The leaves, too, are large, 
equally lustrous, and also assume brilliant autumn colors. This Vibur- 
num can grow in the shade of larger trees or in open situations which 
it prefers, and has proved to be one of the handsomest and most use- 
ful of the plants which have been largely used in the Arboretum in 
border and other mixed plantations. The plants here are now covered 
with flower-buds which will open in a few days. More beautiful than 
the Black Haw or the Nannyberry, the common tree Viburnum of the 
southern states, V. rujidulum is perhaps the handsomest of all the 
Viburnums with deciduous leaves. When it has grown under the most 
favorable conditions this Viburnum is a tree often forty feet high, with 
a tall stout trunk and branches which spread nearly at right angles 
from it; the leaves are thick, dark green and lustrous on the upper 
surface, with winged stalks covered, as are the winter-buds, with a 
thick felt of rusty brown hair; the flowers are creamy white and the 
fruit is dark blue covered with a glaucous bloom. This Viburnum has 
been growing in sheltered positions in the Arboretum for many years, but 
it is only a shrub and does not flower here every year. The plants on 
Hickory Path near Centre Street are now well covered with flower-buds. 
Viburnum rhytidophyllum. This evergreen species discovered by 
Wilson in western China has attracted a great deal of attention in 
Europe; there are fine specimens of it in Raleigh, North Carolina, and 
it flourishes in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. It has lived for sev- 
eral years in the Arboretum, but the cold of ordinary winters destroys 
most of the leaves and kills the flower-buds. Favored by an exception- 
ally mild winter, the plants on the upper side of Azalea Path are now 
