8 
specimen standing in the United States, is growing on the right of the 
Forest Hills Road below the plants of Prunus suhhirtella. A taller 
and narrower plant, raised from seeds collected by Professor Sargent 
in Japan in 1892, is standing by the Forest Hills Road, near its junc¬ 
tion with the Meadow Road. Some of the handsomest and hardiest 
of the double-flowered Cherry-trees cultivated by the Japanese like. 
albo-rosea, and fugenzo, better known in nurseries as “James H. 
Veitch, ” are forms of the Sargent Cherry which supplies the best stock 
on which the double-flowered forms can be worked. 
Prunus yedoensis is the Cherry-tree which has been planted in great 
numbers in Tokio where it makes a city holiday when it is in flower. 
It is a wide-branched tree sometimes fifty feet high with pure white 
flowers. It is hardy in the Arboretum but the flower-buds are often 
killed by cold and it has usually flowered more abundantly in the Peter’s 
Hill nursery than near the Forest Hills gate where the oldest speci¬ 
men in the collection has been growing for many years. 
Chinese Cherry-trees. Some of the species discovered by Wilson in 
western China and raised from seeds collected by him have been in 
flower during the past week. Of interest chiefly to botanists none of 
these trees are of much promise for the decoration of parks and gar¬ 
dens. The most interesting perhaps is the variety media of Prunus 
pilosiuscula which is distinct in the drooping habit of the small white 
or pink long-stamened flowers. 
Plums. In the United States are found more species of the Plum 
group of the genus Prunus than in all the rest of the world. They 
grow as trees and as small and large shrubs, and are found from Can¬ 
ada to Texas and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but are most abun¬ 
dant in species and individually in the Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas 
region. In all eastern Asia there is but one species and in Europe 
two or three. The earliest species to bloom and now in full flower, 
Prunus nigra, the so-called Canada Plum, is a native of the northern 
border of the United States from New Brunswick westward to North 
Dakota. From Prunus americana with which it is sometimes compared 
it is well distinguished by the short incurved, not straight, pointed 
teeth, by the glands on the leaf stalks, and the larger flowers with pet¬ 
als which turn rose color in fading. The Chinese Prunus salicifolia is 
also in flower. It is from this tree that the so-called Japanese Plums 
now largely grown in this country have been developed. 
Almonds. It has been possible to grow in the Arboretum only the 
species from north China, Prunus triloba. It is a tall shrub of open, 
irregular habit and its only beauty is in its flowers which in color are 
of the purest pink; no other plant in the Arboretum produces flow¬ 
ers more delicately beautiful in color. This plant has been growing 
here since 1883 when it was raised from seeds sent by Dr. Bretschneider 
from Peking. The double-flowered form (var. plena) which was found 
by Fortune in a Chinese garden many years ago is a better known and 
often a popular garden plant. 
