NEW SERIES VOL. I 
NO. 9 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. JUNE 21, 1915 
Viburnums of Western Asia. In discussing these plants it must be 
remembered that none of the beautiful evergreen species of southern 
Japan and southern China which are sometimes seen in the gardens of 
the southern states are hardy in New England. The one exception is 
Viburnum rhytidophyllum from western China. This plant can be 
kept alive here in sheltered positions, but it always suffers from cold 
which disfigures and sometimes kills the foliage and prevents it from flow- 
ering; and its only interest from the gardener’s point of view is in its 
ability to exist in New England. It is now possible to judge of the 
value of most of the deciduous-leaved species of China and Japan as 
garden plants for the northern states, for nearly all of them are well 
established in the Arboretum. Speaking generally, they are less valuable 
here than the species of eastern North America, among which are some 
of the handsomest shrubs and small trees which can be grown in New 
England. In speaking of American Viburnums it must be understood 
that we are talking about them in eastern America, and that in Europe 
these plants do not flower as they do here, and rarely if ever produce 
the great crops of fruit which make them wonderful objects in 
autumn. This statement of the comparative value here of the species 
of eastern North America and of eastern Asia as garden plants is a 
general one, for among the Asiatic species are several plants of great 
ornamental value. In the species of the Opulus Group the sterile 
flowers which form a ring round the inflorescence are larger on V. Sar- 
gentii, the Asiatic representative, than on the American and European 
species of this group, and as a flowering plant it is the handsomest of 
the three. The fruits, however, are smaller and of a duller color than 
those of the other species, which are both much more beautiful in the 
autumn. The Korean C. Carlesii, which has been described in an 
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