65 
ent, although rather smaller, and arranged in much longer clusters, 
while the leaves, although larger, resemble in shape those of C. ovata. 
This handsome tree has also been called Catalpa Teasii^ C. Teasiana 
and Teas’ Hybrid Catalpa. Another hybrid of the same parentage has 
purple leaves and, although it probably originated in a European nur- 
sery, has been called var. japonica. The two Catalpas introduced by 
Wilson from central and western China, C. Fargesii and C. Duclouxii, 
live in the Arboretum but do not yet give much promise that they will 
become valuable additions to the list of summer-flowering trees which 
can be successfully grown in this climate. 
The Aralia Family furnishes the Arboretum with three handsome 
trees which flower in late summer or early autumn. They are Acan- 
thopanax ricinifolium, Aralia spinosa and A. chinensis and its varie- 
ties. The Acanthopanax is a tree which is common in the forests of 
northern Japan where it is often seventy or eighty feet high with a 
massive trunk and great wide-spreading branches armed, like the stems 
of young trees, with many stout prickles. The leaves hang down on 
long stalks and are nearly circular, five- or seven-lobed and often fif- 
teen or sixteen inches in diameter. The small white flowers are pro- 
duced in compact, long-stalked clusters which form a flat, compound, 
terminal pancle from twelve to eighteen inches across and are followed 
late in the autumn by shining black fruits which do not fall until after 
the beginning of winter. This tree is perfectly hardy in the Arboretum 
where it has been growing for twenty-four years and where it has flow- 
ered and ripened its seeds now for several seasons. It is one of the most 
interesting trees in the collection and, because it is so unlike other trees 
of the northern hemisphere, it is often said to resemble a tree of the 
tropics. Aralia spinosa^ the so-called Hercules’ Club of the southern 
states where it is a common inhabitant of the borders of woods and 
the banks of streams, is a tree often thirty feet high with a tall 
trunk and wide-spreading branches covered with stout orange-colored 
prickles. The leaves, which are borne at the ends of the branches, 
are long-stalked, twice pinnate, and from three to four feet long and 
two and one-half feet wide. The small white flowers are arranged in 
compound clusters which rise singly or two or three together above 
the leaves and are three or four feet long. The fruit is black, rather 
less than a quarter of an inch in diameter, and ripens in early autumn. 
For several years this tree did not prove hardy in the Arboretum, but 
it is now well established on the slope at the northern base of Hem- 
lock Hill in the rear of the Laurel plantation and is now spreading rap- 
idly there over a considerable area by shoots from underground stems. 
The Asiatic tree Aralia resembles in habit and general appearance the 
American Hercules’ Club, but is distinct from that tree in the absence 
of stalks to the leaflets. There are a number of geographical forms 
of this tree; the one which is most commonly cultivated in this coun- 
try is a native of Manchuria and eastern Siberia (var. mandshurica) 
which is sometimes found in nurseries under the name of Dimorphanthus 
mandshuricus. The Japanese form, var. glabrescens, is chiefly distin- 
guished from it by the pale color of the under surface of the leaflets; 
it is less hardy than the Manchurian form and is not often seen in 
this country. 
