24 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
loo soon to speak of its value. The well known dwarf of 
the Balsam I ir {Abies balsamea var. Imdsonica) is a real 
dwarf only a few inches high. A number of seedling 
lorms of the While Pine {lHnus\ Strobus) and of the 
Seoteli Pine [Pinus sylveslris) are in the collection, hut 
the best known and most generally planted dwarf Pines 
are the mountain forms ot the European Pinus montana 
hich appear in the catalogues of nurserymen as Pinus 
puinUio and P. Mugkus. Ihere are many forms of this 
hardy dwarf; they are broad shrubs with erect or semi- 
prostrate stems and are rarely more than ten feet high, 
nut oiten much broader than tall. Seedlings of these 
plants show great variation in size and habit, and new 
lorms are constantly found in nursery seed-beds. The 
dwarf lorm of the Douglas Spruce {Pseudotsugu Doug- 
lasii var. ylobosa) has proved one of the slowest growing 
of these plants in the Arboretum collection. 
In the common Hemlock of eastern North America the 
tendency to variation in seedling plants is unusually 
strong and dwarfs differing in size, shape and vigor are 
often fomid in the neighborhood of Hemlock groves. 
Some of these have been propagated and have received 
names hut as different names have been used for the 
same or nearly the same forms it is not now possible, 
even if it were desirable, to distinguish all these dwarl 
Hemlocks by name. 
Among the seedlings of the Arbor Vitae of eastern 
North America are found some of the handsomest ol the 
dwarf conifers. There is a large collection of abnormal 
forms of this tree in the Arhoretmn collection and among 
them none are better than those called “Little Gem,” 
compacta and Hovegi. Seedlings of the Japanese Retin- 
isporas {Cfmniaecyparis obtusa and pisifera) show, too, 
a great tendency to variation. One of the handsomest of 
these forms is C. obtusa nana, a compact, pyramidal, 
slow-growing plant. The largest specimen in the collec¬ 
tion is now about eight feet tall. Other forms of C. ob¬ 
tusa are compact mats which show little indication of 
growing more than a few inches high. In the collection 
there are among others dwarf forms of G. pisifera, plants 
with yellow-tipped branches and others with yellow and 
with white leaves and plants of the variety fUifei'a with 
green and with yellow leaves. 
Among the Junipers are found some of the most use¬ 
ful dwarf conifers. Some of these are forms of arbor¬ 
escent species and others are natural dwarfs which re¬ 
produce themselves from seed. Among the former are 
three varieties of the so-called Red Cedar of tlie eastern 
slates {Juniperus virginiana). One of these (var. gto- 
bosa) is a compact, round-topped hush taller than broad, 
and in the Arboretum collection where it has been grow¬ 
ing for fifteen years it is about three feet high. The his¬ 
tory of this plant is not known at the Arboretum. It 
icame here from Holland and probably originated in a 
European nursery. The variety Kosteriana forms a wide 
open bush with erect and spreading, gracefully arching 
stems from two to three feet tall. This is an unusually 
handsome plant which will prove useful lor the margins 
of beds of taller growing conifers. This variety probably 
also originated in a European nursery. More interesting 
even than these nursery forms of the Red Cedar is a 
plant which grows on a few wind-swept clilfs on the 
coast of Maine. Plants of this form are not more than 
eighteen inches higli, with prostrate stems which spread 
into dense mats sometimes fifteen feet across. These 
plants hear fertile seeds, and there are seedlings, grafted 
plants and young collected plants growing in the Arbore¬ 
tum, but it is too soon to judge if they will retain the 
habit of the wild plants when planted in less exposed 
situations. If this form of the Red Cedar retains its 
dwarf habit in cultivation it will be one of the handsom¬ 
est of the prostrate Junipers. Of Juniperus chinensis 
there are a number of interesting shrubs in the Arbore¬ 
tum collection. The handsomest of these, var. Pfitzeriana, 
which grows in the form of a low broad pyramid, is the 
most satisfactory of all J unipers in this climate. Fortun¬ 
ately it can now be found in most American nurseries. 
There are dwarf round-topped forms of J. chinemis with 
green and with yellow leaves which are less than a foot 
high; and a form of this Juniper, var. Saryentii, from 
northern Japan with prostrate stems makes mats now 
eight or ten feet across here. This is a form reproducing 
itself from seed and has proved to be one of the best of 
the mat-like Junipers in the collection. With the excep¬ 
tion of the dwarf form of the European J. sabina (var. 
minor), the lowest Juniper in the collection is J. horizon- 
talis which has long prostrate stems with blue-green or 
in some forms steel blue leaves. This is a North Amer¬ 
ican plant which is widely distributed from the coast of 
Massachusetts to British Columbia. There are fine 
masses of this plant in the collection. Less well known is 
J. conferta, another species which covers with long pros¬ 
trate stems the sand dunes on the coast of Japan. Raised 
first in the Arboretum three years ago from seeds col¬ 
lected by Wilson in northern Japan there is every reason 
to believe that this will prove a useful plant in this coun¬ 
try. Another prostrate Japanese Juniper, J. procumbens, 
is better known. It is distinguished by its sharply pointed 
leaves marked on the upper surface by two white lines. 
This Juniper has not produced seeds and is not known 
except as a cultivated plant; it is planted, however, in 
nearly every Japanese garden and has been much planted 
in California and occasionally in the eastern states. A 
dwarf Juniper, J. communis var. depressa, covers thou¬ 
sands of acres of hillsides in the northeastern states 
where many forms occur differing in the height and in 
the width of the leaves. These are coarser and less de¬ 
sirable garden plants than J. horizontatis and the dif¬ 
ferent low-growing varieties of J. chinensis and J. vir¬ 
giniana. 
