88 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
the Chinese and Japanese Cherries are in flower. The 
first of these plants to open its flowers, Primus tomen- 
tosa, is a native of northern and western China. It is an 
old inhabitant of the Arboretum, although at this time 
larger plants can he seen along the Francis Parkman 
Road in Jamaica Plain, in the Boston Park System, than 
are now to he found in the Arboretum. It is a large, 
wide-spreading and perfectly hardy shrub; the flowers 
open from pink buds as the leaves begin to unfold, and 
the bright red flower-stalks and calyx make a charming 
contrast with the white petals. The small fruit ripens 
in June and is scarlet, slightly hairy, sweet and of good 
flavor. The hardiness and the ability of this shrub to 
florish in a dry climate makes it valuable in cold regions 
like the Dakotas, and it is not impossible that it will in 
time be made valuable for its fruit which is as large and 
of as good flavor as that of the wild Cherries of Europe, 
from which the best garden cherries have been develop¬ 
ed. Even more beautiful as a flowering plant is another 
large specimens have now nearly all been cut for the val¬ 
uable wood which this tree produces. Last year, how¬ 
ever, Mr. Wilson found at Koganei, near Tokyo, an ave¬ 
nue of this tree three miles long which had been planted 
in 1735. Some of these trees are from sixty to seventy- 
five feet tall, with trunks from nine to thirteen feet round 
and heads thirty or fifty feet through. Several double- 
flowered varieties of this tree, cultivated in Japan have 
recently been brought to the Arboretum by Mr. Wilson 
and promise new beauties for the spring gardens of the 
United States and Europe. Primus Sargentii has proved 
in Japan the best stock on which to graft all the Japanese 
double-flowered Cherries, and in this country it may 
prove more valuable for the propagation of the European 
garden Cherries than the stock usually used for this pur¬ 
pose. The flowers, unfortunately, retain their beauty for 
only a short time and by the end of the week the petals 
will no doubt be falling. Primus pendula is a better 
known plant in American gardens, into which it was in- 
8-incli Norway Maple being moved 17 miles in full leaf. The auto takes the place 
of 5 teams when used on hilly roads. Stephen Hoyt’s Sons Co., New Canaan, Conn. 
shrub from northern China, Primus triloba. This has 
flowers of the purest pink and is hardy and free flower¬ 
ing. Apparently first cultivated in the Arboretum, where 
seeds were received more than thirty years ago from Dr. 
Bretschneider, then at Peking, it has never become com¬ 
mon in gardens, although the less desirable form with 
double flowers (var plena) is to be found in most collec¬ 
tions of hardy shrubs. This blooms a little later than the 
single-flowered plant from which it was derived long ago 
in China. Three Japanese Cherries are in bloom, Primus 
Sargentii, P. pendula, and P. subhirtella. The first is be¬ 
lieved by those who have seen the most of these plants to 
be the handsomest of the Cherry trees. It is a large tree 
with lustrous reddish bark and broad pink or rose-color¬ 
ed flowers which appear before the leaves; these are of 
good size, deep green and lustrous, and in the autumn 
turn to shades of crimson or yellow. The fruit ripens in 
June and is the size of a pea, bright red when fully 
grown and black and shining at maturity. This was once 
a common tree in the forests of northern Hondo and of 
Ilokaido and ranging northward into Saghalin. The 
troduced from Japan several years ago. Seedlings of this 
form with pendulous branches often retain this habit, 
but sometimes seedlings appear with more erect and 
spreading branches, indicating that it has probably de¬ 
scended from a tree of different habit. The third of these 
species, Primus subhirtella, is rather a large shrub than 
a tree. The flowers, which are borne in the greatest pro¬ 
fusion, are similar to those of P. pendula, but the branch¬ 
es are erect. This when in flower is certainly one of the 
most beautiful of the whole group. Very generally and 
widely cultivated in Japanese gardens, Primus subhir¬ 
tella is not known anywhere in a wild state. The col¬ 
lection of Cherries is on the right-hand side of the road 
entering by the Forest Hills Gate. 
Forsythias. The handsomest of these plants is a 
hybrid between two of these species, Forsythia suspensa 
Fortunei and F. viridissima, known as F. intermedia. 
There are several forms of this hybrid. The one called 
