Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. Ill 
NO. 8 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. JUNE 15. 1917 
Wisterias. All the species and varieties of Wisteria have now been 
arranged on the trellis near the Forest Hills Road with the exception 
of the white-flowered form of W. sinensis, W. japonica and the double- 
flowered form of W. venusta. The first appears to be an exceedingly 
rare plant; it was found by Fortune in Chinese gardens and first flow- 
ered in England in 1849, and Wilson saw occasional plants on the cliffs 
near Ichang in central China. This plant has never been in the Arbor- 
etum. There was a plant in Francis Parkman’s garden in Jamaica 
Plain which flowered in 1880 but has now disappeared; there is said to 
be a specimen in a garden in Connecticut, and there are two splendid 
old plants in gardens in Opelousas, Louisiana. It is wanted for the 
Arboretum collection. Wisteria japonica is a smaller plant than the 
other Asiatic species, with slender stems and small clusters of pale 
yellow flowers. This plant flowered in the Dana collection at Dosoris, 
Long Island, in 1879, and once many years ago produced a few flowers 
in the Arboretum. It is a native of the warmer parts of Japan, and 
not really hardy in the northern states. 
There are two American species native of the middle and southern 
states; the best known of these, Wisteria frutescens, is the more 
northern plant and is a slender vine with short compact clusters of 
comparatively small fragrant flowers. It is a less showy plant than 
the other species but is interesting as the first of the Wisterias culti- 
vated in the United States and Europe. There is a white-flowered 
variety (var. alba). A handsomer plant is Wisteria macrostachya from 
the Missouri-Louisiana-Texas region but fortunately perfectly hardy 
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