44 
outer scales are reduced to thickened reflex tips which stand out like 
ears. Several Ash-trees discovered by Wilson in western China have 
been raised at the Arboretum and are now growing in its nurseries. 
Of these Fraxinus platypoda has grown the most rapidly, but it is too 
soon to form an idea of the value of these trees in American planta¬ 
tions. 
Ash-trees require deep, rich, moist soil and as they usually unfold 
their leaves late and lose them early in the autumn they are not good 
trees to plant to shade streets and sidewalks. They are often injured 
while young by borers, and they are all liable to suffer from the attacks 
of the oyster shell scale. 
Rosa muitibracteafa is one of the last of the new Chinese Roses to 
flower. It is an attractive plant with small leaves and small flowers in 
clusters, the clear pale pink petals being deeply notched at the apex. 
Vigorous young shoots of this Rose are thickly covered with bright red 
prickles and greatly add to its beauty at the time when it is in flower. 
Rosa gallica var. officinalis is flowering for the first time in the 
Arboretum. It is one of the Province Roses and is sometimes called 
Rosa provincialis. The large, handsome, partly double red flowers are 
more fragrant than those of most modern Roses. This Rose is common 
in several old gardens in the town of Medfieldjin this state. No one now 
knows when and by whom it was brought there. It has long been 
known in French gardens, and there is a beautiful picture of it by 
Redoute in his great work on Roses published in Paris more than a 
century ago. There is a form of this Rose with paler-colored flowers 
which is growing in a garden in Weston in this state which was brought 
from New Hampshire where it is said to be common in old gardens. 
Tradition credits the Huguenots with having brought this Rose to 
America. 
Tripterygium Regelii is flowering w T ell again this year in the Shrub 
Collection and on Hickory Path near Centre Street. It is a near rel¬ 
ative of the Bitter Sweet (Celastrus) and a native of Japan and Korea. 
It is a half climbing shrub with stems sometimes forty or fifty feet 
long in its native countries, large, long-pointed, dark green leaves, and 
small white flowers in great terminal clusters which are followed by 
three-lobed and three-winged fruits. This plant flowered in the Arbor¬ 
etum when not more than three feet high. The small plants have 
erect, self-supporting stems, but large plants will need the support of 
trees, shrubs or rocks over which to stray. This hardy shrub is well 
suited for covering rocky banks or hillsides in our northern states. 
Rhododendron (Azalea) viscosum, which is the latest of the Azaleas 
to flower in the Arboretum, is in bloom. It is a common plant in the 
swamps of southern New England where it is usually known as “Swamp 
Honeysuckle.” The small, pure white, clammy flowers which continue 
to open during several weeks are hidden by the new shoots of the 
year which are often fully grown before the first flowers open, and the 
great value of this Azalea is found in the fragrance of the flowers 
which make the neighborhood of an Azalea swamp delightful. Al¬ 
though it grows naturally in swamps, this Azalea grows equally well 
transferred to a garden border or to a hillside, as on Azalea Path in the 
Arboretum where many of these plants are now covered with flowers. 
