Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. IX 
lO. 8 
ARNOLD AmOMMJWs 
HARVARD UNI. 
>nal 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. 
JUNE 7, 1923 
Laburnums, small European trees or large shrubs, sometimes called 
‘'Golden Rain,’’ can furnish our gardens in June and early July with 
the handsomest yellow flowered trees which can be grown in this clim¬ 
ate. The best known Laburnum in this country is Laburnum anagy- 
roides, or as it is more often called'^ Laburnum vulgare. This is a 
native of central and southern Europe and a shapely tree from twenty 
to thirty feet in height. It is one of the most generally planted and 
popular exotic plants in England" and probably was brought early to the 
United States where it has been mofe generally-planted than the other 
Laburnums. Although not always perfectly hardy in Massachusetts large 
plants are occasionally found in the neighborhood of Boston and these 
are now covered with their drooping racemes of golden colored flowers. 
A number of varieties of Laburnum anagyroides are propagated in 
European nurseries but these are curiosities and certainly not better 
as garden plants than the type of the species. One of the most distinct 
of the abnormal forms, var. bullatum, with its curiously twisted and 
contorted leaflets is now in bloom in the Arboretum. The Scotch Labur¬ 
num (L. alpinum), probably so called because it is a most cultivated 
and favorite garden plant in Scotland, flowers later than L. anagyroides 
and is a hardier plant in this part of the country with longer racemes 
of flowers. When the plants growing in the Arboretum are covered 
with their long drooping flower clusters they are objects of great beauty 
and it is surprising how little this plant is known to American garden 
makers. Another Laburnum, L. Watereri, a natural hybrid between 
L, alpinum and L. anagyroides, which is intermediate between its par¬ 
ents in botanical characters and in the time of flowering, and is a beau- 
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