34 
earlier issue of these Bulletins (No. 2), has no particular beauty of 
habit or of foliage, but has few rivals in the beauty of its fragrant 
flowers. The handsomest, however, of all the Asiatic Viburnums is 
V. tomentosum, a native of both Japan and western China. In Japan 
it grows to the size of a small tree, but in this country it is a large 
shrub with wide-spreading horizontal branches on the upper side of 
which the flat flower-clusters are thickly placed and are surrounded 
by a ring of pure white ray flowers. The fruit when fully grown is 
bright scarlet at first and becomes black at maturity. This is one of 
the handsomest shrubs which has been brought from eastern Asia into 
our gardens. There is a Japanese form in the collection with narrower 
leaves, var. lanceolatum, and two “Snowball” forms. The more com- 
mon of these is a large, vigorous and hardy shrub which is covered 
every year with small compact heads of white sterile flowers. It usu- 
ally appears in gardens and garden-catalogues as Viburnum plicatum, 
but the correct name for this plant is V. tomentosum, var. dilatatum. 
The other Japanese Snowball is a dwarfer plant and flowers here 
about two weeks earlier than V. plicatum. The name for it is V. 
tomentosum, var. dilatatum, forma rotundi folium. The Chinese Snow- 
ball, V. macrocephalum, forma sterile, has pure white sterile flowers 
in larger heads than those of the other Snowballs. It was introduced 
into England from Chinese gardens many years ago, and although 
hardy and free-flowering here, it is not a vigorous or long-lived plant. 
The type of this species is not in the Arboretum. Viburnum Sieboldii, 
a native of Japan, is a treelike shrub or small tree which sometimes 
grows to the height of thirty feet. This plant has light green lus- 
trous leaves, round and broadest at the apex, with prominent veins, 
and when crushed an exceedingly disagreeable odor. The flowers are 
produced in large clusters and the fruit, like that of V. tomentosum, 
turns from bright red to black after it is fully grown. Viburnum 
Sieboldii is a fast-growing and perfectly hardy plant, and one of the 
best of the Asiatic species in this climate. A handsomer plant is 
V. dilatatum, which is widely distributed in Japan and grows also in 
Korea and western China. It is a large and shapely shrub with broad 
flat clusters of perfect flowers which are followed by large clusters of 
small bright red fruits, which make it a desirable plant for the decor- 
ation of the autumn garden. It is one of the last of the Asiatic 
species to flower in the Arboretum, and is now covered with its hand- 
some flower-clusters. Viburnum Wrightii, a Japanese species, is only 
valuable for its bright red fruits which are larger than those of V. 
dilatatum and make it conspicuous in autumn. Viburnum burejaeticum 
from eastern Siberia and V. erosum, a native of Japan and Korea, 
are well established in the Arboretum but have little to recommend 
them as garden plants, and this is true of the six or seven species 
from western China discovered by Wilson which are hardy here. The 
best of them, perhaps, is V. theiferum ; this is a stout and vigorous 
narrow shrub with erect stems, small flower-clusters and red fruits. 
This plant has some economic interest, too, as an infusion of the 
leaves furnished the “sweet tea” used by the monks in the monas- 
teries on Mt. Omei, one of the five sacred mountains of China. Of 
the western Chinese species V. Veitchii has the handsomest foliage 
which resembles that of the Traveler’s Tree, V. Lantana, and retains 
