7 
Azalea or Rhododendron, equals them in beauty. The flowers, too, 
last longer in good condition than those of the other Japanese Cherry- 
trees. Three varieties of Prunus suhhirtella are cultivated in the 
Arboretum where they begin to flower a few days later than the type. 
One of these, the var. ascendens, is a tall tree not uncommon in the 
woods of central Japan. It is this tree which is usually produced from 
the seeds of Prunus suhhirtella, and the seedlings furnish the best 
stock on which to graft that plant. Still extremely rare in gardens, 
this variety ascendens shows little promise of becoming a valuable gar¬ 
den plant. Much better known is the variety pendula. This is the 
Japanese Weeping Cherry which has been cultivated for fifty years in 
this country and is now common in the neighborhood of Boston and 
New York. The trees are very beautiful when they are covered with 
their small pure pink flowers, but these last only for two or three days. 
Seeds of the tree with pendulous branches occasionally produce seed¬ 
lings of similar habit, but most of these seedlings are the var. ascend¬ 
ens which is the best stock for the var. pendula. Another variety of 
Prunus suhhirtella (var. autumnalis) has been growing in the Arbore¬ 
tum for only a few years but is a plant of considerable promise espe¬ 
cially as it flowers in both spring and autumn. This is a shrub or in 
Japan occasionally a small tree, with semi-double pink and white flowers 
which open in spring a day or two later than those of the variety 
pendula. The autumn flowers are rather smaller and less abundant 
than those of the spring crop, but opening in October never fail to create 
interest and curiosity. 
Prunus incisa is again covered with flowers which open at the same 
time as that of Prunus suhhirtella. The pure white petals only last 
for a few days but the calyx which gradually turns red remains on the 
fruit for two or three weeks and is distinctly conspicuous. The name 
incisa of this Cherry is descriptive of the deep lobes of the large hand¬ 
some leaves. Although a common plant in Japan on the Hakone 
Mountains and the slopes of Fuji-san this Cherry still remains extremely 
rare in American and European gardens. The oldest plant in the 
Arboretum now established near Prunus suhhirtella on the right hand 
side of the Forest Hills Road was obtained in 1912 from a German 
nursery. 
The Sargent Cherry, as the northern form of Prunus serrulata (var. 
sachalinensis) is often called, is the handsomest of all Cherry-trees of 
large size, as Prunus suhhirtella is the handsomest of the species which 
are shrubs rather than trees. The rose colored or pink flowers which 
began to open this year on the 27th of April are short lived but their 
abundance, the hardiness of the tree which has not yet been attacked 
here by disease, the beauty of the large dark green leaves, brilliantly 
colored in the autumn, and the lustrous bark make this the handsom¬ 
est of all Cherry-trees of large size. In northern Japan it was 
once a common inhabitant of the forest growing sometimes to aheight 
of eighty feet with a tall massive trunk. Such trees are sought for 
the valuable lumber they produce and are fast disappearing. It was 
first raised in the Arboretum in 1891 from seeds presented by Dr. 
William Sturgis Bigelow, of Boston, and this tree, the largest 
