THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
131 
beautification of parks and grounds in Arizona, Texas, 
New Mexico and California. 
Especial attention was given on this trip to investiga¬ 
tions of chestnut blight, which was found by the explor¬ 
er first in China and later on in Japan. In the eastern 
United States this blight appears in virulent form and is 
exterminating our beloved chestnut. The explorer, how¬ 
ever, found Chinese chestnut trees which were to some 
degree blight resistant. Many of these trees have suffer¬ 
ed from the disease but had apparently recovered from 
severe attacks and succeeded in covering the old scars 
with new wood. 
To lovers of flowers the new Chinese rose known as 
the Rosa xanthina should be of special interest, particu¬ 
larly in view of the fact that there is at present a great 
demand for yellow roses. This bush has small, light 
yellow flowers, but its great quality is its hardiness 
which will enable it to flourish in the North even as far 
as Canada. The chief promise of this rose, however, lies 
in the fact that it will in all probability lead to the pro¬ 
duction of new hardy types of yellow roses adapted to 
cultivation in America. It may produce varieties which 
will not drop their leaves like our Persian yellow roses 
do and yield varieties with larger and more showy flow¬ 
ers. In addition, the explorer found a number of new 
rambl er roses, particularly yellow ramblers which, if lo¬ 
cally successful, will meet a demand for a climbing rose 
with a flower differing in shade from the crimson and 
pink flowers of the well-known rambler varieties. 
AMERICAN AZALEAS AND OTHER PLANTS AT THE 
ARNOLD ARRORETUM 
N O other plants add more to the beauty of mountain 
slopes and forest glades in eastern North 
America than Azaleas, which are more abundant 
and more varied in the color of their flowers in the Appal¬ 
achian region than in any other part of the world. Of 
the ten species found in the eastern United States seven 
are established in the Arboretum, and the others from the 
extreme south, although in the Arboretum nurseries, are 
too young to show their ability to withstand the rigors ol 
the New England climate. All Azaleas are now called 
Rhododendrons. The first species to bloom, R. Vaseyi, 
begins to flower the beginning of May, and the flowers 
of the last, R. viscosum , can be found as late as the 
middle of July. The Azalea season is therefore a long 
one. /?. Vaseyi is a tall shrub with slender stems and of 
open irregular habit; in its home in a few isolated moun¬ 
tain valleys in South Carolina it sometimes grows to the 
height of fifteen feet. The flowers are produced before 
the leaves appear, in small compact clusters, and are pure 
pink in color, plants with white flowers occasionally ap¬ 
pearing. With R. Vaseyi the Rhodora (R. canadense) 
blooms. This is a well known dwarf shrub often cover¬ 
ing in the north large areas of swampy land with a sheet 
of bloom. The small flowers, however, are of a rather 
unattractive rose-purple color. Naturally the Rhodora 
grows from Newfoundland to Pennsylvania and New Jer¬ 
sey. The next to bloom are R. canescens and R. nudi- 
florum, and although the two sometimes grow together 
the former is a northern and the latter a more southern 
plant, and is especially common in the Gulf States from 
eastern Florida to eastern Texas. The rosy pink flowers 
of these plants open before or with tin* unfolding of the 
leaves, and in early spring fill the woods with their 
beauty and fragrance. These plants can now be seen in 
flower on Azalea Path and there is a mass of R. canescens 
on the Meadow Road in front of the Linden Group. R. 
calendulaceum is the next species to flower, and a few 
plants have already opened their orange, yellow or red¬ 
dish flowers which are not fragrant. This shrub is an 
inhabitant of the mountain regions from southern New 
York to Georgia, and is extremely abundant on tin* lower 
slopes of the high mountains of North Carolina and Ten¬ 
nessee. In flower it is the most showy of the American 
Azaleas established in the Arboretum, and one of the most 
beautiful of all flowering shrubs. A large mass of Ibis 
Azalea has been planted on the slope below Azalea Path, 
and occasionally large specimens can be seen on tin* bol¬ 
der plantations along some of the roads. The next species 
to flower, R. arborescens, is also a native of the moun¬ 
tain region from Pennsylvania to Georgia where in shel- 
tered valleys it sometimes grows from fifteen to eighteen 
feet tall. The flowers, which appear after the leaves 
are nearly fully grown, are white or faintly tinged with 
rose color, and are made conspicuous by the long bright 
red filaments of the stamens; they are very fragrant, and 
the young leaves have the odor of new mown grass. Less 
showy in the color of the flowers, perhaps, than the yel¬ 
low-flowered Azalea, it is one of the most beautiful of all 
hardy Azaleas. The last species to flower, the Clammy 
Azalea or Swamp Honeysuckle, R. viscosum, is a common 
inhabitant of the swamps of the eastern states, especially 
of those in the neighborhood of the coast. The small 
flowers are pure white and covered with clammy hairs, 
and the leaves are often of a pale bluish color, especially 
on the lower surface. This plant is valuable for the 
lateness of its flowers which do not open before the 
flowers of most hardy shrubs have passed, and for their 
fragrance. These shrubs are all good garden plants al¬ 
though. like other Rhododendrons, they cannot lx* made 
to live in soil impregnated with lime. They are not of¬ 
ten cultivated, however, because it is not easy to find 
them in nurseries, for few nurserymen in the United 
States care to take the time and trouble to raise such 
plants from seeds, the only successful way in which they 
can be propagated. 
The New Chinese Cotoneasters. 
Of the shrubs introduced from western China by \\ il- 
son the most successful perhaps as garden plants belong 
to the Old World genus Cotoneaster. At least eighteen 
of these species are hardy in the Arboretum, and several 
of the plants have now grown large enough to show their 
habit, the beauty of their flowers and I ruits. the brilliancy 
of their foliage and their ability to adapt themselves to 
the peculiarities of the New England climate. I he most 
showy species now in flower are C. multiflora and its 
variety calocarpa, and C. hupehensis. C. multiflora is a 
tall shrub with slender, wide-spreading, gracefully arch¬ 
ing. bright chestnut brown stems and branches, dull pale 
gray leaves, white flowers half an inch in diameter borne 
along the whole length of the branches in compact clus¬ 
ters on short lateral twigs, and black fruits. C. multi- 
flora is a widely distributed and common plant in south¬ 
ern Siberia and northern and western China, and has 
