can be seen along the Francis Parkman Road in Jamaica Plain, in the 
Boston Park System, than are now to be found in the Arboretum. It 
is a large, wide-spreading and perfectly hardy shrub; the flowers open 
from pink buds as the leaves begin to unfold, and the bright red flow- 
er-stalks and calyx make a charming contrast with the white petals. 
The small fruit ripens in June and is scarlet, slightly hairy, sweet and 
of good flavor. The hardiness and the ability of this shrub to flourish 
in a dry climate makes it valuable in cold regions like the Dakotas, 
and it is not impossible that it will in time be made valuable for its 
fruit which is as large and of as good flavor as that of the wild Cher- 
ries of Europe, from which the best garden cherries have been devel- 
oped. Even more beautiful as a flowering plant is another shrub from 
northern China, Prunns triloba. This has flowers of the purest pink 
and is hardy and free flowering. Apparently first cultivated in the 
Arboretum, where seeds were received more than thirty years ago 
from Dr. Bretschneider, then at Peking, it has never become common 
in gardens, although the less desirable form with double flowers (var. 
plena) is to be found in most collections of hardy shrubs. This blooms 
a little later than the single-flowered plant from which it was derived 
long ago in China. Three Japanese Cherries are in bloom, Prunus 
Sargentii, P. pendula, and P. subhirtella. The first is believed by 
those who have seen the most of these plants to be the handsomest 
of the Cherry trees. It is a large tree with lustrous reddish bark and 
broad pink or rose-colored flowers which appear before the leaves; 
these are of good size, deep green and lustrous, and in the autumn 
turn to shades of crimson or yellow. The fruit ripens in June and is 
the size of a pea, bright red when fully grown and black and shining 
at maturity. This was once a common tree in the forests of northern 
Hondo and of Hokaido and ranging northward into Saghalin. The large 
specimens have now nearly all been cut for the valuable wood which this 
tree produces. Last year, however, Mr. Wilson found at Koganei, near 
Tokyo, an avenue of this tree three miles long which had been planted 
in 1735. Some of these trees are from sixty to seventy-five feet tall, 
with trunks from nine to thirteen feet round and heads thirty or fifty 
feet through. Several double-flowered varieties of this tree cultivated 
in Japan have recently been brought to the Arboretum by Mr. Wilson 
and promise new beauties for the spring gardens of the United States 
and Europe. Prunus Sargentii has proved in Japan the best stock on 
which to graft all the Japanese double-flowered Cherries, and in this 
country it may prove more valuable for the propagation of the Euro- 
pean garden Cherries than the stock usually used for this purpose. 
The flowers, unfortunately, retain their beauty for only a short time 
and by the end of the week the petals will no doubt be falling. Pru- 
nus pendula is a better known plant in American gardens, into which 
it was introduced from Japan several years ago. Seedlings of this 
form with pendulous branches often retain this habit, but sometimes 
seedlings appear with more erect and spreading branches, indicating 
that it has probably descended from a tree of different habit. The 
third of these species, Prunus subhirtella , is rather a large shrub 
than a tree. The flowers, which are borne in the greatest profusion, 
are similar to those of P. pendula, but the branches are erect. This 
when in flower is certainly one of the most beautiful of the whole 
