34 
five inches across. On the Japanese plants the heads of bracts are 
rarely three inches and a half in diameter. The Chinese plant flowered 
in the Arboretum for the first time two years ago, and the flower-buds 
have never been injured by cold. It is flowering more freely this year 
than it has before and is now an object of much beauty. Like the 
Japanese plant the Chinese Cornus kousa has grown here as a shrub, 
but there seems no reason why it cannot be trained into a tree, as in 
China it is a small tree with a trunk sometimes a foot in diameter. 
If it fails to produce seed here the Chinese plant can probably be 
grafted successfully on Cornus jlorida. Although the Asiatic flower¬ 
ing Dogwoods do not make such a display of flowers as our American 
trees, their flower-buds are hardier judging by the effects of the winter 
of 1917-18, and if the future confirms this they will flower further 
north than Cornus jlorida. The fact that they bloom when the leaves 
are nearly fully grown and when the flowering time of most trees is 
over makes these Asiatic Cornels valuable, and it now seems probable 
that in the Chinese form of Cornus kousa the northern states have an 
important ornamental tree. The Japanese and Chinese plants are now 
in bloom, the former on Hickory Path near Centre Street and the latter 
with the other Chinese plants on Bussey Hill. 
Aesculus turbinata, the Japanese Horsechestnut, first came to the 
Arboretum from France in 1881; this plant was lost, and in 1893 it was 
raised from seeds collected in Japan by Professor Sargent. These 
plants were also lost, but another supply was raised in 1900 from seeds 
produced by the fine specimen in the nursery of Ellwanger & Barry 
in Rochester, New York, and one of these plants has flowered this 
year. In Japan this Horsechestnut is a magnificent tree, often grow¬ 
ing to a height of eighty or ninety feet and forming a tall trunk occa¬ 
sionally seven feet in diameter. Like the European Horsechestnut the 
leaves are composed of seven leaflets, but these are thinner and more 
lustrous, and the leaf-stalks are longer. The Japanese tree in summer 
therefore appears less dark and massive than the common Horsechest¬ 
nut. The flower-clusters are narrower and the flowers, which are white 
with scarlet markings at the base of the petals, are handsomer. 
Aesculus turbinata , which grows to its largest size in central and 
northern Japan, is perfectly hardy in New England. Time only can 
show if it is able to live as long and grow to as large a size here as 
in its native country. If it succeeds here as the Horsechestnut of the 
mountains of Greece has succeeded during the last hundred years it 
will prove to be one of the handsomest exotic trees which has been 
planted in eastern North America. Aesculus turbinata is one of the 
five largest deciduous leaved trees of eastern Asia. The others are 
Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Populus Maxim,owiczii, Acanthopanax ricin- 
ifolium, and Zelkowa serrata. These five trees are now established 
in the Arboretum. 
Early Flowering Hydrangeas. The first Hydrangea to flower in 
the Arboretum is the so-called climbing Hydrangea, H. petiolaris, 
which has been covered with flowers during the past ten days. A few 
days later the plants in a group of shrubby Chinese species opened 
their flowers which are arranged in broad flat-topped clusters sur¬ 
rounded by a ring of large, pure white ray flowers. The best known 
of these plants, Hydrangea Bretschneideri , a native of the mountains 
