COMPLIMENTARY 
NEW SERIES VOL. V NO. 3 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN. MASS. MAY 10, 1919 
New Chinese Cherry-trees. Among the numerous Cherries raised at 
the Arboretum from the seeds collected by Wilson in western China 
there are six which are good additions to the early spring flowering 
trees which can be successfully grown in this climate. The handsom¬ 
est probably is Prunns serrulata pubescens. This tree is of the same 
species as the Sargent Cherry {P. serrulata sachalinensis), but is 
smaller, rarely growing in the forests which are ita home to a greater 
height than fifty feet; the flowers open nearly a week later and are 
white faintly tinged with rose, and somewhat smaller. The leaves, 
too, are less deeply tinged with bronze color as they unfold. As it 
grows in the Arboretum the branches of this Cherry are ascending and 
slightly spreading, and form a narrow, open, graceful head. Plants 
raised from seeds which were gathered on the mountaihs of China only 
twelve years ago are seventeen or eighteen feet high, and have been 
covered this spring with flowers. This is the most widely distributed 
of these Cherries as it is spread over central and northern China to 
Korea and through Japan to Saghalien. Prunus serrulata spontanea 
differs from the last only in the absence of hairs on the young leaves 
and flower-clusters which are peculiar to that species, although the 
flowers, at least in some individuals, are slightly more tinged with 
rose, and the unfolding leaves are of a deeper color. This tree is almost 
as widely distributed as the last but does not range as far north in 
Japan. Prunus canescens is a smaller tree. Its greatest beauty, per¬ 
haps, is found in the bark of the trunk which is dark orange-brown, 
very lustrous, and separates freely into large persistent papery scales 
much curled on the margins. The flowers, which are small and purple- 
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