56 
This handsome tree has flowered now for several years in the Arbore¬ 
tum. E. Henryi, a common inhabitant of western Hupeh where Wilson 
found it growing to a larger size than the other Chinese species of this 
genus, is also established and flowers in the Arboretum. 
Summer Flowering Shrubs. Many handsome shrubs which can be 
grown successfully in this climate do not bloom till after midsummer. 
There are few Americans who have travelled in Scotland in summer 
who have not been impressed by the beauty of the Heather {Calluna 
vulgaris) or have not felt the desire to introduce it to their homes. 
The Heather, however, has remained a comparatively rare plant here 
although it is hardy and easy to grow in nearly all parts of the north¬ 
ern states and eastern Canada where the soil is not impregnated with 
lime. In one or two places in northern Massachusetts and in Nova 
Scotia it has become completely naturalized, and on one New England 
estate where it was planted only a few years ago it is spreading rap¬ 
idly over large areas. Heather should be planted in well drained sandy 
soil in situations exposed to the sun, and the plants look better and 
flower better if the stems are cut down close to the ground in early 
spring. This prevents a straggling growth and insures a better bloom. 
There are a number of handsome and interesting varieties of the 
Heather in the Arboretum collection. Some of the best of these are 
the variety alha with white flowers; the variety alha minor, a plant 
of dwarfer habit than the last; var. rubra, a dwarf compact variety 
with crimson flowers, and one of the earliest to flower and one of the 
handsomest of the set; var. tomentosa, a compact plant with gray-green 
foliage and red flowers; var. alba Serlei, a tall growing form with white 
flowers; vars. alba tenella and alba rigida with white flowers; var. Al- 
portii, a tall growing form with crimson flowers; and var. hypnoides, a 
very compact, small-leaved plant producing only sparingly its small 
purple flowers. These plants can be seen in the Shrub Collection; quan¬ 
tities of Heather have also been planted on the side of the Valley Road. 
Among other shrubs still to flower in the Arboretum are Aesculus 
parviflora, from the southeastern United States, and the North American 
and Japanese Clethras or Spice-bushes. North American and Japanese. 
Hydrangeas, many Spiraeas, Hypericums, Callicarpas, Lespedezas with 
their abundant purple flowers, and the Chinese Buddleias will later give 
interest to the Shrub Collection, in whicR tjie silver leaved Lead plant 
{Amorpha canescens) of the western plains and prairies has not yet 
opened its showy blue-purple flowers. 
Perhaps the most generally planted shrub in the United States among 
those which bloom in summer is the form of the Japanese Hydrangea 
paniculata (var. grandiflora), in which the whole infloresence is com¬ 
posed of sterile white ray flowers which surround the inflorescence of the 
normal form of many other Hydrangeas. This abnormal inflorescence 
is oblong, bluntly-pointed, and often a foot or more in length and so 
heavy that the slender stems are often not able to support it. The 
flowers, which are white when they open, turn to a rather dirty red 
color; and it is not easy to find an uglier garden shrub. 
These Bulletins will now be discontinued until the autumn. 
