11 
open irregular head is not particularly attractive. Of better habit is 
Pyrus serrulata, a fast-growing tree with large flowers which have 
been only sparingly produced in the Arboretum. The Chinese form of 
Pyrus paskia raised from Wilson’s seeds is also established in the Ar¬ 
boretum where it is now flowering. The Himalayan form of this tree 
was first sent to Europe in 1825, but has not been tried in the Arbor¬ 
etum where it would probably not be hardy. In addition to the four 
Pear-trees from western China there are five other Chinese species 
established here, P. ussuriensis , the wild Pear-tree of Korea and Man¬ 
churia, and extending into northern China and into Japan; P. Bret- 
schneideri, a northern tree with juicy yellow fruit of good flavor; P. 
ovoidea, another northern species with yellow fruit tapering from a 
broad base to a narrow apex, and P. betulaefolia and P. phaeocarpa, 
species with small brown fruit, that of the latter globose on some in¬ 
dividuals and pyriform on others. Taken as a whole the Chinese Pear- 
trees make one of the interesting groups in the Arboretum, and as 
early spring flowering trees they take rank with the Crabapples, al¬ 
though the open flowers, which are often tinged with pink while in 
the bud, are white and so lack the variety of colors which add so 
much beauty to the flower-buds and flowers of the Asiatic Crabapples. 
Two Korean Azaleas. Two of its most beautiful plants have come 
to the Arboretum from Korea, Rhododendron {Azalea) Schlippenbachii 
and R. ( Azalea) poukhanense. The former is a shrub which on the 
wind-swept, grass-covered cliffs of the Korean coast rises only a few 
inches above the surface of the ground, but in the forests of the north 
is a shrub twelve or fifteen feet high with a tall, stout stem. The 
leaves of this Azalea are clustered at the ends of the branches, and 
are broadest at the apex; they are larger than those of most Azaleas, 
becoming sometimes three inches long and an inch or an inch and a 
half wide. The flowers, which appear before the leaves, are in clus¬ 
ters, pale pink with dark spots at the base of the upper three lobes 
of the corolla, and three inches in diameter. There can be little doubt 
of the hardiness of this Azalea, for in northern Korea it grows to its lar¬ 
gest size where the thermometer falls to 30° below zero Fahrenheit and 
a freezing temperature is not uncommon in August. In the Arboretum 
the flower-buds were not injured by the cold winter of 1917-18 on plants 
growing in an exposed position. Although known to Russian botanists 
as long ago as 1870 this plant does not appear to have attracted the 
attention of western gardeners until 1892 when the late J. H. Veitch 
found a plant growing in a nursery in Tokyo and sent it to England. 
In the edition of the Catalogue of the Yokohama Nursery Company, 
of 1901, Azalea Schlippenbachii appeared, and at about this time 
it was imported by Mr. Thomas E. Proctor and planted in his garden in 
Topsfield, Massachusetts, where the plants are still growing. These 
are the oldest and largest in the United States, for the Arboretum 
plants were raised here from seeds brought home by Mr. J. G. Jack 
from Korea. R. Schlippenbachii, although it has remained exceedingly 
rare in western gardens, will probably be much better known in a few 
years, for in the autumn of 1917 Mr. Wilson sent from Korea a large 
