bright yellow flowers, which will make this tree conspicuous for an- 
other week. Two interesting native shrubs, too, the Spice Bush ( Ben- 
zoin aestivale, sometimes called Lindera Benzoin), and the Leather- 
wood {Direct palustris), have been covered for several days with their 
small bright yellow flowers which appear before or with the unfolding 
of the leaves. There are large groups of these plants on the right- 
hand side of the Bussey Hill Road, opposite the upper end of the Lilac 
Group. Not very often cultivated they deserve a place in every spring 
garden. Among early-flowering American plants is also to be men- 
tioned the Shad Bush of the Southern states, Amelanchier canadensis , 
This is the largest and earliest flowering of the whole genus, and is 
often a tree of considerable size. It is now in flower on the left-hand 
side of the Meadow Road, entering from the Jamaica Plain Gate, where 
the general collection of these plants has been arranged. In another 
week the Arboretum will be gay with the flowers of the Shad Bushes, 
for these plants have been largely used in the mixed plantation along- 
the drives. With these few exceptions, however, the shrubs which 
make the greatest show here in the early spring, the Magnolias, For- 
sythias, Cherries, Peaches, Apples, Pears, Azaleas, Honeysuckles, 
Lilacs and Berberis are from the Old World. 
Magnolias. The earliest of the Magnolias, M. stellata, has been in 
flower for several days in front of the Administration Building. This 
is a perfectly hardy, vigorous, wide-spreading shrub and an inhabitant 
of the mountain slopes of southern Japan. Like the other early-flow- 
ering Magnolias, it belongs to that section of the genus in which the 
flowers appear before the leaves. There is a variety of this plant with 
pale pink flowers which is also in bloom. The flowers of another Jap- 
anese species, Magnolia kobus, and its variety borealis, appear soon 
after those of M. stellata. The species is a large, irregular growing 
shrub and is inferior in size and habit to its variety which is a tall 
and shapely tree with larger flowers. These plants rarely flower freely 
in this climate and now carry fewer flowers than they did a year ago, 
and as flowering plants are inferior to the Chinese species and their 
hybrids which are also in flower. The best known of these Chinese 
Magnolias is the white-flowered M. denudata, better known in gardens 
as M. conspicua or as M. Yulan. This is one of the handsomest and 
hardiest of the spring-flowering trees which are hardy in eastern New 
England, producing freely every year its large tulip-shaped blossoms 
which usually escape injury from late frosts, by which the flowers of 
M. stellata are often discolored. There are a number of hybrids be- 
tween M. denudata and M. liliflora, usually known as M. obovata or as 
M. purpurea. These hybrids all have flowers more or less deeply 
tinged or streaked with rose and bloom a little later than M. denudata . 
M. Soulangeana is the best known of these hybrids, but there are sev- 
eral others which are equally beautiful. These plants are near the 
Administration Building at the Jamaica Plain entrance. 
Asiatic Cherries. This is one of the most interesting weeks of the 
whole year in the Arboretum for several of the Chinese and Japanese 
Cherries are in flower. The first of these plants to open its flowers, 
Prunus tomentosa, is a native of northern and western China. It is 
an old inhabitant of the Arboretum, although at this time larger plants 
