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1991

The Magazine of the Arnold Arbomtum

arnoldia

amoUia

Volume 51 Number 3 Fall 1991

Ainoldia (ISBN 004-2633; USPS 866-100) is published
quarterly, in winter, spring, summer, and fall, by the
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. Second-class
postage paid at Boston, Massachusetts.

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Peter Del Tredici, Editor
Judith Leet, Associate Editor

Ainoldia is set in Trump Mediaeval typeface and
printed by the Office of the University Publisher,
Harvard University.

Copyright © 1991, The President and Fellows of
Harvard College.

Page

2 Lady into Landscape Gardener — Beatrix
Farrand's Early Years at the Arnold
Arboretum
fane Brown

11 Why Study Mistletoes?

Elizabeth A. Kellogg

18 The Sweet Pepperbush: A Summer
Sensation
Michael A. Din

22 The Harvard Garden in Cuba — A Brief
History

Marion D. Cahan
32 Correction: Ginkgo biloba

Front and back covers: The lotus pond at the Harvard
tropical garden, Cienfuegos, Cuba, featuring the
traveler's palm, Ravenala madagascariensis. Photo
from August, 1935.

Inside front cover: Sassafras albidum at the Arnold
Arboretum. Photo by Racz and Debreczy.

Inside back cover: The striking foliage of Moms alba
'Venosa' growing at the Arnold Arboretum. Photo by
Racz and Debreczy.

Lady into Landscape Gardener: Beatrix Farrand's
Early Years at the Arnold Arboretum

Jane Brown

One of America's great landscape gardeners, Beatrix Farrand was deeply
influenced by Professor C. S. Sargent, the Arboretum's first director.

For the whole of her long and successful
career, Beatrix Farrand was consistently and
loyally appreciative of the place she regarded
as her alma matei, the Arnold Arboretum.
Her gratitude and affection shine through her
public writings, from a piece she called "The
Debt of Landscape Art to a Museum of Trees"
for the Architectural Record of November
1918,* to her pieces for Arnoldia in 1949,
describing her work on the azalea border and
her layout plan for Peters Hill.^ Her friendship
with Professor Charles Sprague Sargent, her
adored "Chief," who had taught her "by
precept and example," was maintained until
the end of his life in 1927; and after that, she
conducted a lengthy and vigorous correspon-
dence with Alfred Rehder and Karl Sax, and
especially with William Henry Judd, the
Arboretum's English propagator, who died in
1946. Judd, who had first come to the Arnold
in 1913, was her closest contact after Sargent's
death, and there was a rather sad irony in that
Arnoldia of May 31, 1946,^ aimounced his
sudden death from a heart attack at the same
time it made public Beatrix's appointment as
consultant landscape architect. Beatrix's last
surviving letters on Arboretum matters — she

refers to herself as "the old lady" whose mind
works very slowly — are dated in the spring of
1953, just six years before her death.

This well-documented relationship of her
later years will be the subject of a future
Arnoldia article, but for the moment, 1 would
like to concentrate upon how it all began. For
my forthcoming book on Beatrix Farrand's life
and work, I have had to piece together much
more elusive evidence on how she came to
study at the Arnold in the 1890s and what she
did there. She left no diaries or letters of that
time, and her references to it were persistently
vague, even to the drafting of what amounted
to her own obituary, for the Reef Point Bulle-
tin, where she mentioned "a fortunate meet-
ing" (one of many in her life) with Mrs.
Charles Sargent and how the Professor
became interested in her love of plants. She
then became "the grateful guest" of the Sar-
gents, at which time the facilities of the
Arboretum were thrown open to her. Thus, as
she also wrote, her life was changed; it most
certainly was, for chance and circumstances
had brought her into the realm of perhaps the
only person, in the only place, where the res-
trictions imposed by her native society could

A portrait photo of Beatrix Cadwalader Jones at her debut, circa 1890, the year she first met the Sargents. Reprinted
courtesy of the College of Environmental Design Documents Collection, University of California, Berkeley.

4 Beatrix Farr and

be overcome, and she could be launched into
the world of men as an independent profes-
sional woman.

Family Connections

Beatrix Jones was born into a rigid society of
old-money New York in the 1870s, where it
was decreed that a lady's name only appeared
in print to announce her engagement and her
death. She was an only child, born on 19 June
1872, something over two years after the mar-
riage of her parents, Frederic Rhinelander
Jones and Mary Cadwalader Rawle. Her father
(who had a young sister who would grow up
to be the novelist Edith Wharton) was rich,
fun-loving, and purposeless; her mother was
lively, bookish, and used to the company of
scholarly Philadelphia lawyers and soldiers in
the society from which she came. Mary had
probably married in haste, and she and Freddy
soon discovered their deep incompatibilities,
so that by the time Beatrix was ten her father
was virtually absent from her life.

Beatrix was highly intelligent and well edu-
cated; she grew up to be a handsome young
lady, of elegant bearing, always beautifully
turned out, but with an awesome briskness
of manner. This was probably a self-protective
device, a result of her fatherlessness. She was
surrounded by her mother's friends, a
predominantly female society with a sprin-
kling of eminent men, including John La
Farge, John Singer Sargent, Francis Marion
Crawford, and later Henry James, as well as
Mary's dour and fastidious cousin, the lawyer
John Lambert Cadwalader. But of almost
equal influence as any person on Beatrix
(except for her mother) was the place she loved
most. Mount Desert Island and Bar Harbor in
particular, where she spent her summers.
Beatrix explored every inch of the island, she
was an expert on its trees and wildflowers, and
she sailed her catboat around its rocky shores.
At her home, "Reef Point" in Bar Harbor, she
learned to garden with a sympathy for the
soils and conditions of the island. She learned
from her parents at first, but as Mary Cad-

walader Jones became busy with other things,
Beatrix took control of the garden and was
probably in charge of its progress by the time
she was fifteen or sixteen.

A Suitable Profession

Given her passion for the Maine landscape
and gardening, it seems likely that John Lam-
bert Cadwalader suggested that she should
study the subject seriously; he could well have
been prompted by his friend Mariana
Griswold van Rensselaer's timely approval of
landscape gardening as a career for ladies.

But the key to her decision was, as Beatrix
wrote, her "fortunate meeting" with Mary Sar-
gent. Beatrix was immediately attracted by
Mrs. Sargent's skill in botanical illustration;
she was nearing completion of her set of
watercolors of the flowers, leaves, and fruit of
each tree represented in Professor Sargent's
collection of the woods of America. In her
turn, Mary Sargent probably enjoyed Beatrix's
enthusiastic and knowledgeable chatter about
plants, which was in a lighter vein than the
high-flown table talk of the Professor and his
academic friends. Anyway, Beatrix Jones'* was
soon swept up into the comfortable and capa-
cious milieu of the Sargents' house. Holm Lea,
where apparently the Professor too
appreciated her interest in plants. Her good
looks and elegance were not wasted upon Sar-
gent, but of course she in turn was quite used
to distinguished gentlemen, and would not
have been shy or daunted by his stem gaze and
the aloofness of his Boston soul.

By the summer of 1893, the Sargents were
convinced of the seriousness of Beatrix's
interest in landscape gardening. Beatrix and
her mother Mary had visited Holm Lea en
route from New York to Maine (this became
a regular habit in later years) in June when the
rhododendrons were at their best. The Sar-
gents may have visited them at Reef Point
(this too became a regular event in later years),
but the Professor had most certainly
instmcted Beatrix to make the most of her
summer, to use her eyes, to observe good land-

Beatrix Farrand 5

The pond at Professor Sargent’s estate. Holm Lea, in Brookline, Massachusetts. Photographed in 1900 by
Thomas Marr.

scape effects and plant relationships and note
them down. Her summer flew by, as happy
holidays are wont to do, but towards the end
of September she remembered that she
needed something to show her "Chief," and
bought a brand-new notebook. This was
almost certainly not her first, but it was the
only one she kept as a treasured reminder of
what were to be some of the most momen-
tous days of her young life.

Observing the Landscape

The notebook begins on 10 October 1983 with
her comments on the landscape around Bar
Harbor; one of her favorite haunts is the Dorr
family's Oldfarm at Compass Harbor, where

she finds many good planting ideas, but she
is noticeably critical of exotics on her island
setting, including Mrs. Dorr's "unfortunate"
weakness for magnolias. Her last holiday
entries are made on the train as she leaves for
Boston to meet up with the Sargents, who had
promised to take her to the World's Colom-
bian Exposition in Chicago, to see the
wonders of the fair, but especially the triumph
of Olmsted's landscape setting. After a short
rest at Holm Lea, Beatrix and the Sargents are
bound for Chicago, where they arrive on
October 19.

For a week she wandered around the Expo-
sition, investigating details of design and
planting, and noting them down; she was mys-

6 Beatrix Farrand

An aerial view of Beatrix Farrand’s home. Reef Point, in Bar Harbor, Maine. Reprinted courtesy of the College
of Environmental Design Documents Collection, University of California, Berkeley.

tified by the first Japanese bonsai that she saw,
but entranced by the mix of gardens and con-
trived wilderness on Olmsted's precious
wooded island. Being at the fair under the Sar-
gents' wing taught Beatrix a great deal, but it
also brought her into the inner circle of her
chosen profession. She was no longer on the
outside, but having met so many people and
heard so many conversations on the hard-won
triumph of the fair, she became one of the
"few" who realized, as Sargent had thundered
in Garden and Forest "that the harmony of
the scene and the perfection and convenience
of the whole scheme of arrangement were due
to the genius of one man, Frederick Law
Olmsted."*

Beatrix returned to New York to continue
her reading, but her future was decided and
must have been talked about; the following
February (1894) she and her mother were in
the Sargents' party to visit Biltmore, which
caused Olmsted to remark rather grumpily
that she was "inclined to dabble in Landscape
Architecture."* This much-quoted slight re-
veals the depths of the difficulties Beatrix had
to overcome, and just how important Sargent's
faith in her was to her eventual success.
Olmsted was on the summit of his fame, yet
conscious of his failing energies; he had a
punishing schedule of travels that spring of
1894, and was obsessed with the "exceptional"
education of his son, Frederick, Jr., who, on

Beatrix Faiiand 7

the point of graduating from Harvard, was
being fitted to be his heir. No man, with
Olmsted's almost messianic fervor, could look
kindly on a society lady who dared to dabble
in his precious profession. But, on Beatrix's
side, was it not hard for her that her contem-
poraries, her equals in so many Vv^ays, Charles
Eliot, Henry Sargent Codman, and Frederick
Olmsted, Jr., should be pampered, eased, and
ushered through the surveying and field work,
the European travels, and the office experience
necessary to becoming a landscape architect?
She had to do it all on her own. It was this
imbalance that made Sargent's encourage-
ment cmcial. He was kindly, he had that Brah-
min tendency to give a serious-minded
woman encouragement, and just perhaps, she
appeared at the right moment, with her
brightness and enthusiasm, to fill the gap left
by the death of his former protege, Henry Sar-
gent Codman, in early 1893.

Beatrix probably never knew of Olmsted's
slight, but the situation was clear enough; it
was to affect her life greatly, as well as her
later relationship with the American Society
of Landscape Architects. She refused to call
herself a landscape architect, always preferring
the term gardener.

After the trip to Biltmore in Febmary 1894,
she returned to Holm Lea in the summer for
what was to be her longest stay; she studied
at the Arboretum and was ushered around
Brookline by Sargent (including a visit to H.
H. Hunnewell at Wellesley, and he was
impressed by her knowledge and manner). On
June 5, she faced up to her Waterloo, taking
a chance to visit Olmsted's office (in his
absence). She was allowed a thorough look
around the shrine she could never enter
professionally. Her notes were detailed: "The
entrance is quite charming, a lych gate
covered with Euonymus radicans, both the
plain and variegated, and quite bushy on top.
The road goes around a tiny island with
shrubs planted on a high mound and com-
pletely shutting out the gate. To the right the
ground has been dug away making a little
dell . . ." Her description goes on, and has

gathered interest with time, for the entrance
to 99 Warren Street is still much the same as
she saw it. She describes the planting around
the house, noting some "badly arranged"
shrubs and the clashing azalea flowers in
bluish pink and bright orange.

But she was really interested in the Olmsted
office, and she was allowed to see every aspect
of the work, as her detailed notes reveal. She
was shown, perhaps by the affable John
Charles Olmsted, how design layouts and
areas for planting were sketched on tracing
paper over the site surveys, and how planting
plans were made by reference to a card index,
which gave size, shape, availability, and
required growing conditions for each plant.
The plants were keyed into the design by a
number. All she saw was of vital interest to
Beatrix, and she carried all the ideas and
methods away with her for future reference.

On the following Sunday, June 10, 1894,
Professor Sargent drove her to the Arboretum,-
she took this in her stride since for her to have
a private tutorial was almost certainly not a
unique occasion, but it is the only excursion
she recorded in detail:

On the way we stopped and looked at Mr. Parkman's
collection of shrubs. It was awfully dreary — house
and grounds taken by the Park Commission, house
being torn down [Parkman had died the previous
year]. Only a year ago the grounds were under culti-
vation and now they look as if they had been deserted
for years, paths overgrown, and long grass springing
up everywhere. St. Bruno's lily in full bloom— Azalea
calendulacea still fine too. Magnolia macrophylla
not flowering yet — the largest in the neighborhood.
Aiuncus spiiea in bed quite handsome althci a lit-
tle coarse . . . Jamaica Pond is lovely — or at least must
have been lovely before the Parkway took it — Mr. S.
is trying to make the Commission give up the plan
for the road along the shore in one of the loveliest
spots.

In the Arboretum itself a great deal of work has
been done, especially behind the building [the Hun-
newell laboratory was completed in 1892] where the
Magnolias are to begin.

Beatrix noted Magnolia parviflora {= M.
sieboldii) in bloom, though only a small bush,
and Magnolia glauca (= M. virginiana], per-
fumed almost like a rose. Professor Sargent led

8 Beatrix Pan and

An 1894 photograph of F. L. Olmsted's Brookline home and office, Fairstead. Beatrix Farrand visited Fairstead
on June 5 of that year. Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service.

her on to the roses — Rosa spinosissima in
bloom and alsoi?. nitida, R.lucida, R. setigeia
multi flora, and the Austrian briar were all
noted for future use. Other shrubs that caught
her eye were the hydrangeas, stewartia, Vibur-
num molle, and V. dentatum in bloom and
Fothergilla gardenii, just begirming to fruit.

Sargent must have insisted — if Beatrix
needed any bidding — that she attend J. G.
Jack's dendrology lectures, which he gave that
June; and being Beatrix, she would have made
the most of every chance to learn from that
remarkable character, the chief propagator and
Arboretum superintendent, Jackson Dawson.
Dawson, a jovial, good-natured Yorkshrreman,
resplendent each morning in a fresh boiled
white shirt (on which he invariably wiped his
plant labels), knew everyone who had any bus-
iness among his precious plants in the Arbore-

tum. Beatrix would have found him an
immensely attractive personality, always will-
ing to answer her questions and explain what
he was doing. It seems likely that her later
friendship with Chief Propagator Judd was
founded on her earlier good relationship with
Jackson Dawson.

If Beatrix had acquired a foundation of good
plant knowledge from her visits to Holm Lea
and the Arboretum, especially in that sum-
mer of 1894, she still needed to learn in other
ways. In the autumn she made arrangements
for private courses in technical drawing and
surveying from the teachers at Columbia's
fledgling School of Architecture, and she
made plans for her very necessary European
study tour.

This first important tour lasted for six
months, from March until October of 1895;

Beatrix Far rand 9

she and her mother traveled alone (except for
their lady's maid) but met old and new friends
in many places, including Teddy and Edith
Wharton. Beatrix wrote that Sargent exhorted
her "to see all the gardens she could, and learn
from all the great arts as all art is akin." He
gave her introductions to the Jardin d'Essai in
Algiers, where she studied subtropical plants,
and to the Rovelli brothers who had a collec-
tion of azaleas and rhododendrons near Milan.
Charles Eliot was also very helpful, with good
advice on parks and gardens he had seen in
Paris and Berlin, giving her as well an
introduction to the "very kindly" Carl Bolle
and his marvelous garden of trees on an island
in the Tegel. Sargent may well have paved the
way for her to meet the reigning triumvirate
of English gardeners, William Robinson, Ger-
tmde Jekyll and Theresa Earle, which she did,
all in one week in July.

Olmsted's advice to William Platt had
included his opinion that the "fine and costly"
Italian gardens had less to offer the young
landscape architect than the carefully
observed details of the everyday landscape and
common places. Beatrix, attuned by Holm Lea
dinner-table conversations to the sensitivities
of formal versus natural landscape tastes,
adopted right from this start her carefully
judged position along the middle way, that
was to mark the whole of her career. She saw
over twenty villa gardens in Italy, as well as
the great formal gardens of Germany, France,
and England, but it is interesting to note that
her first contribution to Garden and Forest
(and her first published piece of writing)'^ was
on the merits of a vernacular stone bridge she
had seen in the English Lake District. (She
designed very similar bridges for the woodland
at Dumbarton Oaks over thirty years after-
wards.) She pursued further egalitarian
interests in city parks on her return, and it
was her ideas for these that brought her to the
notice of Samuel Parsons and eventually the
embryonic American Society of Landscape
Architects.

In the April 7, 1897, issue of Garden and
Forest, she wrote about a paper that the land-

Portrait of Jackson Dawson, chief propagator at the
Arnold Arboretum, and a good friend of Beatrix
Farrand. Photograph from the Arnold Arboretum
Archives.

scape gardener Henry Ernest Milner had deli-
vered in London on "The Garden in Relation
to the House," which was really concerned
with the architect in relation to the landscape
gardener. By this time also. Professor Sargent
had delighted her by finding her a little job,
which she described as to do "some tree thin-
ning and remodel a little planting on a garden
slope." By the following autumn, when she
gave her first professional interview to the
New York Sun (October 31, 1897), she could
speak with a breezy, though conscientious
confidence of her work — draining a 25-acre
swamp, clearing a 40-acre forest plot in Bar
Harbor and transforming it "into a pleasing
grove," laying out a cemetery at Seal Harbor,
as well as more garden work in Bar Harbor and
the landscaping of the entrance to Tuxedo
Park in New York State — these last two jobs

10 Beatrix Far rand

The bridge over the River Kent at Levens Hall, from Garden and Forest, 1896 (vol. 9, no. 25). In her first published
article, Beatrix fones described the bridge this way: “The simple lines and quiet color of this ivy-draped bridge
in Westmoreland are what make it satisfying to the eye and an added charm to the stream; it is made from
the stone of the country, and the native plants grow about it as familiarly as though it were a boulder playfully
deposited there by nature in the ice age."

being current. The Sun reporter noted her long
box full of plans, the three hundred hooks on
her subject, and asked if landscape gardening
was profitable, and could a young woman
afford to marry on it? Beatrix laughed as she
replied that "she did not think a yoimg woman
dedicated to her profession could afford to
marry at all."

Miss Jones, "twenty-five years old and
comely" was well on her way, to a full and
busy life and a professional reputation for fine
work that was truly deserved. Beatrix, whose
honesty was one of her most engaging fea-
tures, never ever forgot that she owed so much
to that "kindliest of autocrats,"* her "Chief"

Charles Sprague Sargent and his generously
helping her over so many of the professional
hurdles that time and society placed in her
way. Probably we shall never now know the
full extent of his kindnesses. And, of course,

he also opened up for her his living textbook
of shrubs and trees, her professional stock in
trade.

Endnotes

‘ Vol. 44 (5): 407.

2 Arnoldia 9 (2): 6-7; Vol. 9 (9): 38-43.

' Vol. 6 (4): 5.

Beatrix married Max Farrand in 1913.

’ May 3, 1893, editorial.

^ Laura Wood Roper, FLO: A Biography of Frederick
Law Olmsted, John Hopkins, 1973, p. 455.

’ Garden and Forest, January 15, 1896.

* E. H. Wilson, quoted in A Reunion of Trees, by S. A.
Spongberg, Harvard U. Press, 1990.

Jane Brown studied landscape design, but, as she says,
"happily diverted to writing." She is a prolific writer on
the subject of garden history and design, and is currently
working on a biography of Beatrix Farrand, from which
the above article is extracted.

why Study Mistletoes?

Elizabeth A. Kellogg

This unlikely plant group provides insight into the purposes and processes of
basic research.

If athletes get athlete's foot, what do astro-
nauts getl Yup, you guessed it— mistletoe.

I am getting to an age when I am pleased
that I can remember anything I learned in the
fourth grade, even if it's just a joke. For-
tunately, I have some reason to remember the
astronaut one fairly frequently as I continue
work on the genus Phoiadendion, the largest
genus of mistletoes in the Western
Hemisphere. It is a group of plants that so few
people know about that I feel compelled to
write this article in self-defense, not only to
explain what mistletoes are (they are often
beautiful plants) but also to explain what I am
doing with them and a bit about why I am
doing it.

The most familiar mistletoe, of course, is
the waxy little plant that is hung in strategic
places at Christmas time. In this country the
species is Phoradendron leucarpum, a U.S.
native,- most plants sold commercially come
from New Mexico and Oklahoma (Howard
and Wood, 1955). Its European counterpart is
Viscum album, a plant that figures in Norse
mythology and later was endowed with mag-
ical properties by the Druids.

All mistletoes are parasites on woody
plants. Like most other plants, they have green
leaves and manufacture their own food, but
unlike other plants, they have no roots;
instead they form a complex absorptive organ
called a haustorium that penetrates the vas-
cular system of their host, absorbing water

and nutrients. Thus they grow right into the
tree trank or branch, unlike other epiphytes,
such as orchids and tropical ferns, that merely
perch. Mistletoes have fleshy fruits with a
layer of sticky mucilage surrounding the seed.
The fruits are generally bird-dispersed. After
the seed has passed through the bird's gut, the
mucilage allows it to stick firmly to a branch
where it will then germinate and form a new
haustorium.

Tkxonomy of a Little-Known Family

The mistletoes are sometimes grouped in a
single family, the Loranthaceae, but the
loranths are more often divided into several
different families (Loranthaceae, Viscaceae,
Eremolepidaceae, and Misodendraceae)
because of major differences in floral form and
possibly of evolutionary history; Loranthaceae
and Viscaceae together comprise by far the
majority of the species. The Loranthaceae, in
its most narrow sense, includes mistletoes
mostly with large, strikingly colored, bird-
pollinated flowers and equally showy fruits.
The mistletoes that I study, however, are in
the Viscaceae, in which the major genera are
Viscum, Phoradendron, and Dendrophthora,
all bearing tiny, inelegant flowers with three
or four sepals and no petals at all. Also
included here are dwarf mistletoes, the genus
Arceuthobium, a serious pest in timber trees
in the western United States. As the hausto-
rium of these dwarf mistletoes penetrates the
wood, it causes strange deformations and

12 Mistletoes

Vicium album, the legendary mistletoe of Europe. In North America, species in the genus Phoradendron are used
as substitutes for this plant at Christmas time. From The Biology of Parasitic Flowering Plants by Job Kuijt,
University of California Press, 1969.

excessive branching, which effectively ruins
that portion of the tree for lumber.

Despite the lack of showy flowers, Vis-
caceae are frequently beautiful when alive.
Their leaves are thick and glossy, often a yel-
lowish green that contrasts with the surround-
ing trees. The plants have white, red, or orange
berries that stand out against the leafy stems.

When the plants are collected, pressed, and
dried, however, they become something only
a taxonomist could love — and only a few tax-
onomists at that. The glossy foliage becomes
dull and turns dark brown; the berries shrivel
and lose their color; the flowers solidify. More
aimoying, the jointed stems tend to break at
the nodes, so the leaves and inflorescences fall

Mistletoes 13

off. All herbarium specimens are accompa-
nied by an envelope of fallen leaves, broken
stems, and inflorescences,- in fact, with some
specimens, nothing is glued to the herbarium
sheet at all — everything is stuffed into the
envelope.

A Personal Encounter

I began studying mistletoes seven years ago
while I was working with Dr. Richard
Howard, former director of the Arboretum, on
his Flora of the Lesser Antilles. At that time
he asked me to prepare descriptions and keys
for the Loranthaceae and Viscaceae of the area
(Kellogg, 1987a, b). Writing up most genera
was straightforward because I could refer to
the work of Dr. Job Kuijt (now at the Univer-
sity of Victoria, Victoria, B. C.), who has spent
his career studying the natural history, tax-
onomy, and biology of parasitic plants (for
example, see Kuijt, 1961, 1966). Possibly the
only group Job has tried to avoid is the genus
Phoradendron. As I began working on it, I
could see why.

The problems with Phoradendron are
several: First, there are between 100 and 150
species, primarily in Central and South
America, with many of these extending into
the Caribbean region. Second, leaf shape
within a single species is very variable, mak-
ing it hard to tell if two dissimilar plants may
really be representatives of the same species.
Third, and most important, the botanist Wil-
liam Trelease worked on the genus; in 1916
he published a massive volume on its tax-
onomy (Trelease, 1916). Trelease, like many
botanists around the turn of the century, had
what is called "a narrow species concept." This
means that virtually any variation, no mat-
ter how subtle, was assumed to represent a
different species and thus to require a new
name. If the slightly different plant occurred
in a different place, all the more reason to
name it. Thus, for example, Phoradendron
piperoides is a South American species, and
the name had also been used for similar plants
in the Caribbean. Trelease, however, felt that
some of the Caribbean plants had a distinc-

Phoradendron guatemalense Kuijt. Reprinted from
Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. v. Wetensch. Vol. 93, no. 2,
p. 146 (1990).

tive leaf shape, which meant they should get
a new name so he called them P. ficulneum.
My task in studying the Caribbean Phoraden-
drons was to link up these names and to deter-
mine if Trelease's distinctions held up. In
some cases they did, but in others, like P
piperoides/ficulneum, there seemed no reason
to think that the two were different species;
hence all are now grouped under the name P.
piperoides.

An aid in this sort of detective work is the
requirement that all botanists designate a type
specimen when they describe a new species.
Thus when Trelease gave the name Phoraden-

14 Mistletoes

dion ficulneum to a group of plants, he noted
a particular specimen as being a representa-
tive of that name. The specimen happens to
have been collected by E. L. Ekman in Haiti
and a duplicate (isotype) is in the herbarium
at Kew. When I went to Kew to see the speci-
men (among others), it was easy to see that
it could be included in P. piperoides.

I also discovered that Trelease occasionally
used the same type specimen for two differ-
ent species names, that is, he named the same
thing twice, perhaps an easy mistake to make
when you consider how many names he
produced in his lifetime. Once I determined
what had happened, I could correct it, with
the earliest name taking precedence. The
results of this work were presented in a
regional monograph, or revision (Kellogg and
Howard, 1986).

The Job Gets Bigger

Some time after 1 had finished the Caribbean
work, 1 was asked by the late Dr. Julian Steyer-
mark, of the Missouri Botanical Garden, to
write keys to the species of Phoradendron for
his Flora of the Venezuelan Guyana, the
eastern part of Venezuela that includes the
tepuis. Job Kuijt was working on Den-
drophthora, the closest relative of Phoraden-
dron, as well as all the other Venezuelan
mistletoes, but Phoradendron required a
major independent commitment of time. Fur-
thermore, the nature of the work in Phoraden-
dron demands a big herbarium with a
comprehensive library, such as the Harvard
University Herbaria, one of only a few insti-
tutions where this sort of study can be easily
done.

In undertaking the project, I have had to
become familiar with the South American
members of the genus and have begun to
produce a full monograph, which will quite
likely be completed by Job, including all the
names (wrong ones linked with the right
ones), complete species descriptions, and lists
of representative specimens. I have nearly
finished the Venezuelan species, and from the
long monographic manuscript I have extracted

the necessary information for Steyermark's
flora (now being completed under the editor-
ship of Dr. Paul Berry). In the process of doing
this flora, we have found what appear to be
several new species — ones without any names
at all, Trelease notwithstanding. This is not
surprising for a plant that grows on rain forest
trees: the trees themselves are often poorly
known, and plants growing in their uppermost
branches are even more unlikely to have been
found.

My study of Phoradendron is in many ways
a typical piece of systematic work, the kind
of study undertaken by research botanists at
the Arnold Arboretum since its establish-
ment. In this large genus, new species are rou-
tinely found by plant collectors,- the existing
taxonomic literature is large and somewhat

Phoradendron molinae Kuijt. Reprinted from Ann.
Missouri Bot. Card. Vol. 74, p. 520 (1987).

Mistletoes 15

confused. The approach I take is illustrative
of the analytical nature of taxonomy: the
specimens are first grouped into sets of plants
that look alike; they are quite literally put into
piles of matching plants. This is the most
time-consuming part of the process^ and the
stage at which most of the analysis takes
place. It requires solving dozens of smaller
problems along the way: for example, if leaf
shape varies among some of the plants, does
this mean that they belong in separate stacks
of specimens (that is, represent separate spe-
cies), or does it just mean that shape changes
in response to light or moisture conditions?
Or, as another example, if one plant is wholly
male and another wholly female, do they
really belong together, or have I found the
male of one species and the female of another?

Once I am happy with the contents of each
stack of specimens, I write a formal species
description. Only then can the appropriate
name be determined — by working out which
type specimens fall into each stack. Finally,
an identification key can be constructed.
Traditionally, all this is solitary work; the
Phoradendron study is somewhat unusual in
that it requires close collaboration with Job.
Although he is studying the sister genus to
Phoradendron, the two groups are so similar
that we sometimes make mistakes and end up
with each otheks specimens.

The mucilaginous fruits o/ Phoradendron trinervium.
Photographed in Montserrat by R. A. Howard.

What Is Basic Research?

But all of the foregoing begs the question. So
what? How do I justify days and weeks spent
writing descriptions and keys of an obscure
tropical plant? The answer lies in part in the
nature of basic research: basic, as opposed to
applied, research is work with no immediate
application. It increases the store of human
knowledge on the assumption that the
increase is a good thing in itself, and will lead
to future application. Consider, for instance,
the work of Gregor Mendel, whose experi-
ments and results are studied and memorized
by every beginning student of biology. Men-
del was an Austrian monk who, in the mid-
nineteenth century, did a series of experi-

ments on garden peas, experiments that form
the basis of the modern science of genetics.
Mendel crossed plants that produced smooth
yellow peas with those that produced wrin-
kled green peas and counted the number of
smooth and wrinkled yellow and green peas
in the resulting offspring. He was able to show
that each characteristic was controlled by a
single inherited factor that we would now call
a gene. But we can be sure that he didn't know
that his work would form the basis for such
diverse applications as plant breeding, animal
production, and understanding of such herita-
ble diseases as hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.

This is typical of basic research — its
immediate value is negligible and its ultimate

16 Mistletoes

Tbby Kellogg collecting a mistletoe in the genus Amyema in Australia in 1988.

NEWS

From ThiAinold Arboretum

Plant Sale 1991

P eople listening to National Public Radio's "All Things Consid-
ered" on Friday morning, September 14, heard one of New England's
best-kept secrets revealed when the Arnold Arboretum's annual horti-
cultural extravaganza was the featured weekend event selection.

The result? A larger than ever crowd (over 2,500 people),
undeterred by cool weather and overcast skies, lined up for their
chance to acquire some of the tmusual plants on sale in the Case
Estates barn. Meanwhile, the Arnold Arboretum Associates' "straight
sales" table recorded its first purchase at 7:30 a.m., a prelude to the
frenzied bidding in the later silent and rare plant auctions.

Members of the various participating plant groups— the Herb,
Hosta, Iris, Rhododendron, and Bromeliad societies — joined together
with old and new Friends of the Arboretum to make this a special day
for the New England "plant community." Almost $46,000 was raised
to support the work of the Arnold Arboretum, and our thanks go to
everyone who helped to make the event another memorable occasion.

Historic Landscape

Maintenance

Workshop

Despite the fury of Hurricane
Bob on the previous day,
Tuesday, August 20 saw eighty-
five managers and horticulturists
from historic sites across the
country — from California,
Louisiana, Georgia, and the
Midwest to Washington, New
York, and New England — ^travel
to the Arnold Arboretum for a
three day national workshop. As
the first tangible result of the
new cooperative agreement
between the Arnold Arboretum
and the National Park Service,
the program included talks
covering, "Plants as visual cues
in the historic landscape,"
"Developing a systematic
approach to preservation
maintenance," and 'The evolu-
tion of turf management." The
program, which included
lectures, problem solving
discussions, and field work-
shops, was developed and co-
sponsored by the Arboretum, the
North Atlantic Region of the Na-
tional Park Service, and the
Frederick Law Olmsted National
Historic Site.

The roster of speakers
included Nation Park Service
personnel from Washington, D.
C., the North Atlantic Region
Office, and the Olmsted and
Longfellow Historic Sites.

Continued on page 3

F. Stanton Detand

The Deland Award

Robert Cook, Director

j, for many years
now, have individuals continued
to give major bequests to the
Arnold Arboretum?

Perhaps they have shared
the same belief as the original
trustees of the James Arnold
estate. In 1872 these three men
chose to establish an arboretum
at Harvard University, the most
pre-eminent institution for
scholarship in the country. They
believed that by choosing
Harvard, their investment in
research and teaching would be
of the highest quality, all for the
benefit of humankind. They
hoped too, that others would see
their example and so be simi-
larly encouraged to invest in
work of exceptional quality.

And, indeed, others have.

In 1987 we received a
generous bequest from the estate
of F. Stanton Deland, Harvard
Class of 1936, and long-time
friend of the Arnold Arboretum.
After discussions with Mrs. Sue
Deland and her family last
spring, the Arboretum estab-
lished an endowment in
memory of Stan Deland.

Each year the income from
this endowment shall be used to
make one or more awards, called
the Deland Award, to support
the research of a graduate
student or advanced under-
graduate working on the com-
parative biology of woody
plants. Such studies may include
ecology, reproductive biology,
genetics, physiology, or develop-
ment. While preference will be
given to students enrolled at
Harvard, graduate students at

other institutions may apply as
well.

Preference will also be given
to projects that utilize the 5,500
different kinds of woody plants
in the living collections of the
Arnold Arboretum. We antici-
pate making the first awards in
1992.

The Deland Fund joins the
other endowments which
support research here. For many
years, Mercer Fellows have
joined the permanent staff of the
Arboretum to engage in research
and study using the library and
herbarium collections largely
housed in Cambridge. In
addition, through generous gifts
from the Putnam family, we now

award fellowships and research
support from the Katherine H.
Putnam Fund. Putnam Fellows
are chosen for projects that
specifically use the Living
Collections of the Arboretum.
The most recent Putnam Fellow
was Professor Michael Dirr from
the University of Georgia who
spent a sabbatical semester at the
arboretum in the spring of 1991,
We deeply appreciate the
generosity of these individuals
and the far-sighted vision that
inspired these gifts to our en-
dowment. More than any other
area, critical support for research
at the Arboretum will benefit us
all for many generations to come.

SYMPOSIUM

American Landscape Design as a response to the nation's varied
topography and rich cultural heritage, as well as present-day
issues in conservation and restoration will be explored by
landscape designers and architects on Saturday, November 16, in
a day-long symposium co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum
and New York Botanical Garden. Speakers include John Rtzpa-
trick (Monticello, Virginia), Isabelle C. Greene (Santa Barbara,
California), Dan Kiley (Charlotte, Vermont), and Darrell Morri-
son (University of Georgia). To request a brochure on the
program, call (212) 220-8720.

2

EVENING LECTURE SERIES

Foretaste of the Future

Which of the plant introductions
now being tested in American
nurseries will be voted "most
likely to succeed?" What are the
sources of these new plants, and
how do leading nurseries locate
and decide among them?

Join Steven Frowine,
Director of Horticultural Re-
search and Information at White
Flower Farm in Litchfield, Con-
necticut, for a thought-provoking
slide-lecture titled, "Distinctive
Plants for the Year 2000" to find
out how new plants are found,
tested, and evaluated. This is a
rare opportunity to preview
plant treasures from Britain,
Europe, and the Far East that
have yet to enter the commercial
pipeline.

The lecture is open to the
public and will be held at the
Hunnewell Visitor Center from 7
p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday,
November 7. The fee is $12 for
members and $15 for non-
members.

Architecture and the Garden

Beginning on January 8 for three
Wednesday evenings a special
lecture series discusses relation-
ships between the development
of architecture (house) and the
site (garden).

Gary R. Hildebrand, Landscape
architect. Graduate School of
Design will help us to develop an

understanding for some of the
ways in which we presently
envision the connection
between building and land-
scape in Understanding Types.

Architectural Historian Judith
B. Tankard traces the develop-
ment of the Arts and Crafts
Style of small enclosed Garden
exemplified in the work of Lor-
rimer in Scotland and Lutyens
and Jekyll in England.

Diane Kostial McGuire examines
the work of Beatrix Farrand
and her distillation of the best
of European style for use in the
American landscape.

Call (617) 524-1718 for registra-
tion information.

Landscape Maintenance
Workshop

Continued from page 1

Arnold Arboretum staff pre-
sented several lectures, using the
Jamaica Plain site as an example
of an historic landscape. Guest
speakers included Dr. Michael
Dirr, Scott G. Kimst, Rudi
Favretti, Dr. Martin Petrovic,
and Paul Rogers.

As a result of this popular
workshop (many would-be
registrants had to be turned
away due to space limitations),
the Arnold Arboretum will begin
development of a bibliography
for historic landscape preserva-
tion and will work with the
National Park Service to design a
curriculum that will permit
working professionals to increase
their expertise in landscape
preservation practices.

Ornamental garden gate at Wodenethe, the residence of
H.W. Sargent, Esq. (circa 1856)

3

George Pride

George H. Pride, the Associ-
ate Horticulturist at the
Arnold Arboretum from 1967
to 1978, died of a heart attack
on Sunday 21, July at the age
of 79 years. Many of our
members will remember
George not only for the
classes he taught and the
horticultural information he
dispensed so freely, but also
for initiating the Arboretum's
Friends organization in the
early seventies and for
hosting the "Meet the Staff"
and "Meet the Friends"
presentations at the Case
Estates.

Born in Westbrook,
Maine, George graduated
from North High School in
Worcester in 1930 and from
Clark University in 1936, also
receiving a Master's Degree
from that institution in 1941.

From 1937 to 1967 he taught
biology at Senior High School in
Worcester. George travelled
widely and brought back seeds
from many other gardens to the
Arboretum. He had an excellent
talent in photography and
developed an outstanding series
of botanical travelogues. He was
always in demand as a lecturer.

George's interests in terms
of plants was wide ranging, but
he showed a distinct favoritism
towards bulbs and perennials,
doing extensive hybridization
with iris, hemerocallis, lilies,
gladiolus, amaryllis, and orchids.
Many of the daylilies he hybrid-
ized while living at the Case
Estates are still growing along
the Wellesley Street stone wall.
George also did extensive
planting of the rock garden
adjacent to the Red School
House.

In 1976 George was instru-
mental in bringing the then

young Roy Lancaster to the
United States to address a
meeting of the American Rock
Garden Society. In his "thank
you" letter to George, Roy
noted: "You are a mine of
information and I cannot
think that you have an
equivalent in Great Britain
nor a peer in your own
country."

George Pride

^ ^ ^ ^

NEW ARRIVALS in the Bookstore for Todays Gardens

A Natural History of Trees by
Donald Culross Peattie, 2
volumes. Reprint of an
eloquent and informative
classic of natural history.

Eastern and Central North
America $18.95; member's
price, $17.06. Western North
America, $16.95, member's
price, $15.20.

Indian Herbalogy of North
America by Alma R. Hutchens.
The definitive illustrated guide
to more than two hundred
native medicinal plants and
their uses. $17.00; member's
price, $15.30.

Northeast Gardening by Elvin
McDonald. A practical guide
that speaks directly to the con-
siderations of New England-
ers. $35.00; member's price,
$31.50.

American Wildflowers 1992
Engagement Calendar. Abbev-
ille Press in association with
the National Wildflower
Research Center. Striking pho-
tography from across the
country of wildflowers in their
natural habitats. $11.95;
member's price, $10.76.

The Bookstore is open daily, 10
a.m. to 4 p.m. Stop by or call
(617) 524-1718 for mail order in-
formation.

4

Mistletoes 17

value cannot possibly be assessed. The work
itself seems arcane, even silly at times; some-
how counting smooth and wrinkled peas does
not fit with an image of "serious" scholarship.
Yet that work has profoundly affected our lives
over a century later.

There are currently many questions about
the relationship of basic research to society
today: how much scientific effort should he
directed to basic, rather than applied,
research? To what extent should the general
public foot the bill? How should something
without obvious application be evaluated?
These are not easy questions, particularly in
times when public money is in short supply.

The Desire to Know

But there is a more immediate and personal
question, and that is. How does an individual
motivate herself for such work? I don't get paid
to do it, and even those who are paid will
never become wealthy, so money is hardly the
answer. There is a large element of deferred
gratification, in some respects like teaching,
in that a teacher will probably never really
know the sort of impact she has had on her
students. Similarly, I may never know the
value (if any) of my work on Phoiadendron.

Certainly any taxonomic study of a tropi-
cal plant group can be justified by the rapid
destruction of the rain forest. We need to
know what grows there before it is gone
forever; we need to know areas of greatest
diversity to set priorities for what to preserve.
And there is the argument that many, many
medicines were originally extracted from
plants. The National Cancer Institute con-
tinues to fund plant collection in order to
screen plants for anticarcinogens; some of this
work is currently being done by Dr. John
Burley at the Arboretum. Similarly, the Pacific
yew, Taxus bievifolia, has been used effec-
tively in treating some forms of ovarian
cancer. This application has generated interest
in other species of the genus, which in turn
requires that someone has already completed
the basic work describing what species there
are and how to tell them apart.

But I would never work on Phoiadendron
if the sole incentive were the possibility that
someday someone would find a use for it. The
motivation is much more immediate and fun-
damental, what the poet Robinson Jeffers
called "the curious desire for knowing." It is
something as human as the desire to create
a symphony or a song, or a sculpture or a story.
It is the desire to solve a puzzle that explains
part of the world. The truth is Phoiadendron
is fun.

Which brings me back to the fourth grade.
Remember how clever you felt when you
thought you'd learned a secret? I now know
a lot about some very curious plants — I know
a secret now. And the next most fun part of
secrets, of course, is telling them to your
friends.

References

Howard, R. A., and C. E. Wood. 1955. Christmas plants
in the Boston area. Amoldia 15: 61-84.

Kellogg, E. A., and R. A. Howard. 1986. A revision of the
West Indian species of Phoiadendron (Vis-
caceae). four. Arnold Arboi. 67: 65-107.

Kellogg, E. A., and R. A. Howard. 1988. Loranthaceae. In
Vol. 4, Flora of the Lesser Antilles, R. A. Howard
(ed.). Jamaica Plain, Mass.: Arnold Arboretum,
pp. 97-101.

Kellogg, E. A., and R. A. Howard. 1988. Viscaceae. In Vol.

4, Flora of the Lesser Antilles, R. A. Howard
(ed.). Jamaica Plain, Mass.: Arnold Arboretum,
pp. 102-114.

Kuijt,.J. 1961. A revision of Dendrophthora (Loranthaceae).
Wentia 6: 1-145.

Kuijt, J. 1969. The Biology of Parasitic Flowering Plants.
Berkeley: U. Calif. Press.

Trelease, W. 1916. The genus Phoiadendron. Urbana: U.
Illinois.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to L. Pierce and J. Kuijt for their helpful com-
ments on the manuscript.

Elizabeth Kellogg earned her Ph.D. in biology from Har-
vard in 1983, and is an Associate of the Arnold Arboretum.

Sweet Pfepperbush: A Summer Sensation

Michael A. Din

Native to the wetlands of much of eastern North America, Clethra alnifolia
is now spreading into the cultivated landscape.

My olfactory senses have often been inun-
dated by the sweet floral perfume of the seem-
ingly ubiquitous sweet pepperbush that
occurs along water edges and moist areas
throughout its Maine to Florida range. While
Clethra alnifolia's landscape worthiness has
never been exploited by gardeners and nurs-
eries, new and resurrected cultivars of the spe-
cies are currently stimulating interest.
Gardeners are pleading for flowering shrubs
out of synchronization with the April-May
bonanza. Clethra typically flowers in July and
August, and it is obvious from observing
native populations that selections for a con-
tinuum of flowering times could be made.

The delightful sweet floral fragrance from
which the plant derives its common name is
among the best in the shrub world. The
individual five-petaled, white flowers are 8
millimeters in diameter and occur in racemes
5 to 15 centimeters long (2 to 6 inches) and
2 centimeters wide (0.75 inches). The fruit is
a dry, dehiscent, five-valved capsule that per-
sists into winter.

The lustrous medium to dark green leaves
are 3 to 10 centimeters long (1 to 4 inches) and
sharply serrate. In the fall the leaves develop
a lovely golden to yellow color that ages to a
golden brown. The fall foliage, like that of
Fothergilla and Calycanthus, is quite long-
lasting, due in part to its resistance to damage
from freezing temperatures.

The growth habit of this late-summer-
blooming shmb is distinctly rounded to broad-

rounded because of its suckering, colonizing
nature. Size is extremely variable with a
height of 2 to 3 meters (6 to 9 feet) occurring
most commonly. However, at the Howe Estate
in Newport, Rhode Island, I stared in disbelief
at a six-meter-tall (18 feet) specimen and mut-
tered repeatedly, "It's not supposed to grow
this large."

In the Arnold Arboretum's extensive collec-
tions, Clethra alnifolia is represented by
seventeen different accessions, with #23139-A
(a compact, densely branched, heavily flo-
wered colony of unknown origin) measuring
2.5 meters high (8 feet), 12 meters wide (36
feet), and 13 meters long (40 feet). Remarka-
bly it is prospering in the shade and root com-
petition of two large shagbark hickories
[Cary a ovata).

Propagation

Clethra is easily propagated from seeds that
require no preconditioning and can be sown
as soon as ripe. Softwood cuttings root read-
ily with or without a hormone treatment, but
a five-second dip in an aqueous solution of
1000-ppm KIBA is an inexpensive insurance.
Jack Alexander, chief propagator at the
Arboretum, and I conducted a media rooting
study utilizing Clethra alnifolia as the test
plant. Rooting was 94% in a peat and perlite
mix, 83% in perlite, 78% in peat, and 56%
in sand or sand/perlite. Clethra is one of the
few plants in which cuttings continue to grow
while under mist.

Sweet Pepperbush 19

A large colony of Clethra alnifolia, Accession tt23139-A, growing at the Arnold Arboretum. Of unknown age,
the colony is now 2.5 meters high, 12 meters wide, and 13 meters long. Photo by Rdcz and Debreczy.

The cultural adaptability of Clethra alnifo-
lia is phenomenal, and I have observed thriv-
ing specimens throughout the upper Midwest,
New England, and south into Georgia. The
species adapts to wet and dry sites as well as
to a variety of soil pH's. The dry New England

summer of 1991 exposed many shrubs, such
as weigela, deutzia, philadelphus and hydran-
gea, as less than drought tolerant. Sweet pep-
perbush, however, showed no signs of drought
stress. But mites can be a problem when con-
ditions are extremely hot and dry.

20 Sweet Pepperbush

With the new and resurrected cultivars,
Clethia can find a home in any landscape.
Mass plantings along waterways and shady
areas are always effective. Use the pink-
flowered or compact forms in shmb and peren-
nial borders. I used the pink form as a foun-
dation plant in my Georgia garden and have
pruned it back once in thirteen years. Since

flowers develop on the new growth of the sea-
son, late winter or early spring pruning is
recommended.

Cultivar List

'Anne Bidwell' was grown by Mrs. John
Bidwell, of Cotuit, Massachusetts, from, C.
alnifolia seed purchased through F. W.

The infloiescences of Clethra alnifolia, Accession tt23139A. Photograph by Rdcz and Debreczy.

Sweet Pepperbush 21

Schumacher of Sandwich, Massachusetts.
The habit is more restrained (4 to 6 feet high)
than the species, but the genuine difference
resides in the large, multibranched, almost
fluffy, flower panicles that are 10 to 15 cen-
timeters long (4 to 6 inches) and 8 to 12
centimeters wide (3 to 5 inches). In Mas-
sachusetts the flowers open two to three
weeks later than those of the species. This
clone is currently being propagated and will
soon be released through the Arnold Arbore-
tum's Plant Introduction Program. An
aimouncement of its availability will appear
in a forthcoming issue of Ainoldia.

'Compacta' ('Nana') was given to _me by Mr.
Vincent Simeone, an undergraduate at the
University of Georgia, who obtained it from
a friend on Long Island. It is more compact
than the species and will probably mature
between 1 and 1.5 meters tall (3 to 4 feet).
Leaves and flowers, to date, are smaller than
those typically found in the species.

'Creel's Calico' is, as of this writing, an
unreleased selection with beautiful variegated
foliage. The leaves emerge with cream varie-
gation that is primarily speckled but with
some solid areas on some leaves. In transition
the leaves are bright green with creamy varie-
gation; in maturity, they are black green with
pure white variegation. The leaves are large
and average 10 centimeters long (4 inches).
The original plant was a stoloniferous colony
about one meter high (3 feet). To my
knowledge, this is the first variegated clone
of the species. In shady environments, a mass
planting would provide eye-catching color.

'Hummingbird' is the current haute couture
of plant fashion. Its compact habit (1 to 1.5
meters), in conjunction with normal-sized
leaves, flowers, and fruits, is this cultivahs
principal asset. Plants will be wider than high
at maturity. Random measurements of twelve

inflorescences produced a range from 7 to 19
centimeters (2.75 to 6.25 inches) with an aver-
age length of 10 centimeters (4 inches). At
Swarthmore College, 'Hummingbird' is used
as an effective ground cover. I am extremely
positive about the landscape possibilities of
this selection. Fred Galle of Hamilton, Geor-
gia, is responsible for bringing this plant into
cultivation.

'Paniculata' supposedly represents a clone
with multibranched inflorescences. What cur-
rently poses in the trade for 'Paniculata' is
doubtful and certainly no better than what
can be found in many wild populations. I sur-
veyed several native populations on Cape Cod
and found everything from the single
unbranched raceme type to many clones with
the multibranched racemose-panicle.

'Pink Spires' and 'Rosea' (forma rosea] are
pink-flowered forms with the wonderful
fragrance of the species. Although 'Rosea' is
described as pink fading to pinkish white,
plants in my Georgia garden maintain the
pink coloration until senescence. Supposedly,
'Pink Spires' remains uniformly pink through-
out the flowering cycle. I examined both
clones at the Arnold and saw no difference in
color. 'Rosea' was introduced in 1906, and it
is possible that 'Pink Spires' is simply a
rename. Both clones are vigorous growers, eas-
ily reaching 2 to 3 meters (6 to 9 feet). The
leaves are lustrous dark green, perhaps several
degrees darker than the white-flowered types.
Inflorescences average 7 to 9 centimeters (3
to 3.5 inches), and the buds are deep rose-pink
while the open flowers are lighter pink. In
both of these clones, the peak flowering period
is about a week later than the species.

Michael Dirr is a Professor of Horticulture at the Univer-
sity of Georgia in Athens and recently concluded a sab-
batical leave as a Putnam Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum.

The Harvard Garden in Cuba — A Brief History

Mahon D. Cahan

Begun in 1899, the Atkins Garden became a model for the development of
many later tropical botanical gardens.

The Harvard garden in Cuba was Harvard's vir-
tually unlcnown jewel. Few people, other than
those actively involved in the study of tropi-
cal plants, have ever been aware of its exis-
tence. While the garden was primarily devoted
to the improvement of sugar cane for commer-
cial purposes, it was also the site of research
in other areas of tropical agriculture and
botany. The unique blend of economic real-
ity and academic vision that characterized the
garden produced farsighted results that sub-
sequently served as a model for the develop-
ment of tropical botanical gardens in other
countries.

As a center for tropical plant research and
sugar cane investigation, the Harvard Botanic
Station was established on the Atkins sugar
estate at Soledad, Cienfuegos, Cuba, in the
summer of 1899 at a conference attended by
businessman Edwin F. Atkins and Professors
Oakes Ames and George L. Goodale, both of
Harvard University. This meeting initiated
the development of what was to become one
of the richest tropical gardens in the world.
Without the vision of the those who were so
deeply involved in its conception and
implementation, this institution would prob-
ably not have been created.

The Inception of the Garden

As a businessman, Edwin Atkins was
interested in increasing the profits from his
sugar cane operation. He had previously con-
sulted Edward Wilson, then Secretary of

Agriculture, to seek his opinion about expand-
ing the sugar cane industry in Cuba. Wilson
discouraged him, believing that the climate
of Cuba was not suitable for the enterprise,
and warned against spending large sums of
money on a wholly doubtful venture. Atkins's
response at the time was, "When one lawyer
gives me advice that I do not like, I go to
another lawyer," and so he consulted Profes-
sor George Goodale of Harvard for his opin-
ion, who in turn consulted his colleague.
Professor Oakes Ames of the botany depart-
ment. Both Goodale and Ames supported
Atkins's proposal with enthusiasm, and his-
tory eventually proved Atkins right about the
suitability of Cuba for expanded sugar cane
cultivation.

As a result of that first meeting in Cuba in
1899, Edwin Atkins gave Harvard University
a gift of $2,500, of which $2,000 was to be
used for a traveling fellowship in economic
botany. The recipient of this fund was to visit
certain stations in the far eastern and western
tropics where experiments on the improve-
ment of economically important plants, par-
ticularly sugar cane, were in progress.

In these early days, there was no official
connection between the Botanical Garden of
Harvard University and the garden in Cuba —
the latter being Mr. Atkins's personal
property — nor was there an endowment or
land to which the university had title. The
cooperative efforts of Atkins and Harvard to
further research and development in the field

The Harvard Hopical Garden 23

Enterolobium cyclocarpum (Leguminosae) growing in the Harvard tropical garden in Cienfuegos. The tree is 50
feet tall with a spread of 100 feet. Photographed in 1928 by Alfred Rehdei.

of tropical botany served their mutual benefit.
The first superintendent, Robert M. Grey, was
paid by the Atkins fund, chiefly for services
rendered in the development of sugar cane.
Both Ames and Goodale were optimistic and
keenly interested in establishing a biological
institute in Cuba. Goodale, whose primary
interest was zoology, "adopted" the garden on
his own authority. At a later date, Professor
Ames was appointed its first official director.

Early History

The history of the garden is inextricably
linked to the history of Cuba. Shortly after the
discovery of the island by Europeans, the
native American Indians were either killed or
died as a result of introduced diseases. The

island became a colony of Spain, and slaves
were eventually brought in from Africa to
work the fields that were created by cutting
down the indigenous forest. While the island
was initially populated by the descendents of
these slaves and by immigrants from Spain,
many other nationalities settled in Cuba,
including an influx of North American
businessmen in the mid- 1800s.

The town of Cienfuegos, located on the
western side of Cuba, was founded in 1819 as
a result of the development of sugar lands by
Trinidadian families who had come to the
island with their slaves for that purpose. Even-
tually the area became one of the most eco-
nomically important parts of the island. An
American, Elisha F. Atkins, had established

24 The Harvard Tiopical Garden

A vista of the Harvard tropical garden. Photograph by E. G. Stillman, 1941.

A panoramic view of the palm collection at the Harvard tropical garden. Photograph by E. G. Stillman, 1941.

The Harvard Tiopical Garden 25

24 The Harvard Tiopical Garden

The Harvard TTopical Garden 25

A vista of the Harvard tropical garden. Photograph by E. G. Stillman, 1941.

A panoramic view of the palm collection at the Harvard tropical garden. Photograph by E. G. Stillman, 1941.

26 The Harvard TTopical Garden

Hura crepitans (Euphorbiaceae) growing in front of the Harvard house at the Harvard tropical garden in Cienfuegos.
Photographed in 1928 by Alfred Rehder.

a sugar business in Cuba in 1838, heading the
firm called E. Atkins &, Co. Initially he had
started a banking commission business for
Cuban sugar producers, advancing money on
sugar crops and molasses to be shipped to the
United States. Through purchases and fore-
closure proceedings, the Atkins Company
eventually acquired many sugar estates,
including Soledad, the most important one
developed prior to 1850.

When Elisha Atkins first came to Cien-
fuegos, practically all the sugar business was
in the hands of Spanish merchants. This sit-
uation changed during the 1870s when beet
sugar produced in Europe first provided seri-
ous competition to cane sugar. To counteract
this situation, Elisha's son Edwin expanded
his father's commission business to include
the actual cultivation and production of sugar.

At the age of sixteen, Edwin had left the
family home in Boston on January 24, 1866,
and had sailed from New York to take charge
of his father's business interests in Cien-
fuegos. Initially a receiving clerk, within two
years he was given responsibility for the
management of the business, his father hav-
ing assumed the vice presidency of the Union
Pacific Railroad, a post he held until his death
in 1882.

The year 1882 marked the beginning of the
Atkins sugar-producing business in Cuba.
Soledad, the primary plantation, which con-
sisted of 4,500 acres of beautiful land isolated
by hills and mountains, was taken over by
Atkins by foreclosure in 1884. With Edwin
assuming active supervision, the mill was
ready for production within a year with a
labor force comprised of Africans and

The Harvard Tropical Garden 27

Chinese. He gradually acquired more land
and, within twenty-five years, had one of the
most modern and progressively managed
sugar estates on the island.

In 1892, Edwin took over another large plan-
tation in the city of Trinidad on a long-term
lease and became president of the Trinidad
Sugar Company, eventually acquiring many
adjacent sugar estates. The success of these
ventures attracted a large colony of Americans
to the area.

In 1894, general political umest spread
throughout Cuba, due primarily to Spain's
increasingly repressive presence on the island.
Serious problems existed in the form of low
production, unemployment, theft, hunger,
and poverty. Because of these persistent
difficulties, Atkins kept plantation employ-
ment at a low level. Fostered by American bus-
iness interests, there was a growing sentiment
in the United States to encourage the indepen-
dence of Cuba. The island was still under
Spanish military rule in 1896 when Atkins
lobbied Washington to protect American
properties. The political tensions ultimately
led to the Spanish-American War, which Spain
lost — along with Cuba, her last colony. A brief
American occupation of the island followed
the conclusion of the war, and in 1898 the
United States recognized the independence of
Cuba.

The Growth of the Garden

The original Atkins fund, established in 1899,
was to be used to support the garden after
Edwin's death. In 1901, the Harvard Botanic
Station for research and sugar cane investiga-
tion was formally inaugurated, situated in the
area called Colonia Limones, a barren but pic-
turesque site.

Robert M. Grey, a renowned horticulturist
employed by Professor Ames, was commis-
sioned to visit Soledad in December 1900 to
investigate the cane-flowering conditions and
to locate a site for the new garden. He had
lived in the warm tropics of South America
and was admirably qualified for this new task
in subtropical Cuba. In 1901, he was

appointed superintendent of the garden, with
his salary paid out of the Atkins fund. His
tasks were to lay out trial beds for vegetables
and to produce new varieties of sugar cane by
hybridizing different strains. The overall pur-
pose of the project was to develop cane that
not only was resistant to the fungal diseases
but also had a higher sugar content. Perfect-
ing his own techniques with great success.
Grey remained in Cuba for over thirty years,
maintaining a record of distinguished service
until his retirement in 1936.

During the first few years, operations at
Cienfuegos were largely devoted to the sugar
cane work; however. Grey also imported many
other plants and fruit trees from Florida for
experimentation, developing one of the largest
collections of tropical plants in the Western
Hemisphere. An additional purpose of the
garden, beyond the study of sugar cane, was
to introduce as many different kinds of plants
as possible and to experiment with their cul-
tivation. Letters from 1901 to 1902 sent to
Professor Ames by Hugo Bohnhof, an assistant
to Mr. Grey, reported good results with let-
tuce, tomatoes, cabbage, beans, cucumbers,
and artichokes. In later years, experiments
with bananas, cocoa, coffee, and rubber proved
successful; however, cotton and tea crops were
failures.

In the early days of the garden, many of the
best-known tropical fruit trees were estab-
lished on a trial basis. Citrus was one of the
early subjects of the research program;
hundreds of hybrid mango seedlings were
produced and tested. A choice collection of
ornamental plants from Professor Ames's con-
servatories in North Easton, Massachusetts,
were also sent to the garden in 1901, along
with seeds and plants from the Harvard Botan-
ical Garden in Cambridge.

Sugar Breeding

Before the inception of the garden, and dur-
ing its early years, the principal variety of
sugar cane grown in Cuba, 'Cristalina,' was
performing badly because of a combination of
factors, primarily fungal diseases, exhausted

28 The Harvard Tiopical Garden

soil, and climatic problems. A small collec-
tion of newer cane varieties was immediately
planted, but these produced little or no
improvement over the older cultivars.
Between 1902 and 1904, the first improved
cane seedlings were produced as a result of the
successful hybridization experiments
initiated by Grey.

During the cane breeding season of 1906-07,
320 clones, mostly hybrid seedlings produced
by Grey, were retained for use in the cane-
breeding program. Several varieties, superior
to 'Cristalina' in size and sugar content, were
selected for large-scale commercial cultiva-
tion. They proved drought resistant, disease
tolerant, and high yielding under a variety of
soil types. The best all-round performer was
Harvard #12,029.

In 1908, experimental hybridizing between
the best varieties of these commercial canes
and Japanese canes took place. Eventually
these seedlings were crossed with Chinese
and North Indian varieties, and they too
proved to be commercially successful.

By 1912, at the second Cuban National
Exposition, the Atkins garden exhibited thirty
distinct varieties of the new Harvard seed-
lings. These plants had the distinction of
being the only canes of Cuban origin among
the many others exhibited. Subsequently,
cane breeding on other estates in Cuba was
successfully carried out.

Building the Collections

By 1903, the garden contained some 243
genera and 400 species of plants. The grow-
ing collection, constantly augmented by
imported plants as well as native species from
different parts of the island, necessitated the
constmction of a seeond greenhouse in 1907.

Also in 1903, eighteen Cuban-grown banana
varieties were brought together to form a col-
lection, which was still being maintained in
1926. There were, in addition, a few species
of cycads, a large palm collection, and a fine
assemblage of bamboo and other grasses.
Leading varieties of strawberries and their
hybrids were successfully cultivated for many

years. Grey also hybridized oranges, grapefruit,
mangos, and many other fruit trees that flo-
wered in the garden. But sedges, planted
experimentally, grew so rapidly that they were
a costly nuisance and were eventually eradi-
cated. Forage legumes and grasses also gave
unsatisfactory results.

In 1908, experiments with flowering and
ornamental plants (northern armuals, herba-
ceous perermials, bulbs, and roses) failed
because of the hot, damp summer weather
and the prevalent fungal diseases. The rose
collection brought together in 1908 was dis-
continued in 1925, at which time there were
about seventy different varieties.

On June 3, 1911, a forty -five minute cyclone
severely damaged or destroyed buildings, trees,
and crops. Replanting was initiated immedi-
ately and recovery was rapid. The following
years were devoted to planting new species
and increasing the garden area. By December
31, 1925, the garden contained 144 families,
629 genera, and 1358 species — exclusive of
native species.

Stronger Ties with Harvard

Pleased with the sugar cane research and
other developments at the garden, and by this
time deeply interested in the scientific
approach to tropical agriculture, Atkins, on
December 9, 1919, gave $100,000 to perpetu-
ate the project. From the beginning, the Har-
vard Botanical Station in Cuba and Harvard
University had maintained a hazy relation-
ship, as Atkins had never passed any land to
Harvard and had paid only for the expenses
of the garden.

In 1920, the connection between the garden
and Harvard was cemented by this large gift
of money, and the garden became a recognized
part of the university. Edwin Atkins died in
Cuba in 1926 at the age of seventy-four; his
wife continued the family interest in the
garden throughout her long life.

In 1924, the Harvard Biological Laboratory
was constructed at the garden, along with a
house for the use of scientists who came to
study. Scholarships were available to Harvard

The Harvard Tropical Garden 29

students interested in tropical biology. A new
section of several acres was added to the
garden in the spring of 1929, devoted to the
cultivation and preservation of native hard-
woods and timber trees. Unfortunately, this
project was short-lived; most of the trees were
destroyed when the land was cleared for cane
cultivation and other agricultural pursuits.

In 1932, administration of the Harvard
Experimental Station in Cuba was transferred
to the Arnold Arboretum and renamed The
Atkins Institution of the Arnold Arboretum,
as voted by the Harvard Corporation; interest
then shifted from commercial crops to the
planting of tropical tree species imported from
Florida, Jamaica, the East Indies, Australia,
tropical Africa, and Central America.

In the following years, the collections grew,
more land was purchased, and numerous
researchers came to the Atkins Institution to
pursue botanical field work. The garden

reached its zenith of beauty and diversity at
this time. The travel restrictions imposed dur-
ing World War II, however, made it difficult
for botanists to travel to Cuba, and the num-
ber of foreign visitors declined.

In 1946, the garden was divorced from the
Arnold Arboretum, and the name, once again,
was changed — to the Atkins Garden and
Research Laboratory, with Dr. Arthur G.
Kevorkian as the first resident director. His job
was to convert the garden to a tropical agricul-
tural research facility, concentrating on crops
specifically adapted to the environmental con-
ditions prevailing in Cuba. Dr. Kevorkian
resigned in 1949, and Dr. Duncan Clement
(Ph.D. Harvard '48) became the new director.
Under his aegis, the garden assumed greater
significance as a scientific institute.

The garden flourished during the ensuing
years, benefiting tropical research and hor-
ticulture, and advancing the welfare of Cuba.

Some of the damage caused by a severe storm at an unknown date.

30 The Harvard TTopical Garden

Professor f. G. Jack, of the Arnold Arboretum staff, at work pressing specimens in the Harvard house laboratory
at the Harvard tropical garden in Cienfuegos. Photographed in 1928 by Alfred Rehder.

By 1957, the garden's influence extended well
beyond the confines of the island.

In 1958, Cuban society was disturbed by
political unrest, and by 1959, the Communist
revolution was in full progress. Initially this
had little effect on the garden, and work there
continued as before. By 1961, however,
increased uncertainties and difficulties caused
a breakdown in the operation. Dr. Clement
left Cuba in January 1961, financial support
was terminated by Harvard in August of that
year, and all plant records were transferred to
Cambridge. Satisfactory operation of the
garden had become a casualty of the deteri-
orating political situation.

When diplomatic and consular relations
between the United States and Cuba termi-
nated, traveling to Cuba from the United
States became very difficult, requiring a visa
from a third country such as Mexico, Canada,

or Jamaica. Those botanists who recognized
the growing importance of tropical botany and
who had made use of the garden's facilities felt
a tremendous loss. Harvard University's oper-
ation of the Cuban garden was suspended
indefinitely on September 1, 1961.

The Garden "Thday

With improved political conditions, it was
hoped that the Atkins Garden and Research
Laboratory would be reactivated and would
resume its former position in the Institute of
Plant Sciences at Harvard. To date, this has
not come to pass, but the monies set aside to
support the garden are still used to support
research in tropical botany through the Atkins
Fellowships administered by Harvard.

According to Dr. Duncan Clement, who
wrote to the author on Febmary 9, 1991, from
Pembroke Pines, Florida, the garden survives

The Harvard Tiopical Garden 31

Oakes Ames — Harvard Botanist

Oakes Ames and his critical role in the history of the Cuban garden's
development and its absorption into the Harvard administration.

Oakes Ames was an instructor in botany at
Harvard from 1899 to 1909, and almost con-
currently (from 1900 to 1910) was director
of the Harvard Botanical Garden in Cam-
bridge. A practical botanist, Ames had an
extensive knowledge of plant growth and
form. Shortly after he became director of
the Arnold Arboretum, he interested Presi-
dent Lowell in transferring the administra-
tion of the Cuban garden to the Arnold
Arboretum, and with the financial support
of Edwin F. Atkins, the garden in 1927
became known as the Atkins Institution of
the Arnold Arboretum. It had been Ames's
wish to endow a professorship at the garden
and thus give it worldwide academic stat-
ure, but this never occurred.

Although Oakes Ames was involved in
the development of a variety of economi-
cally important plants at the Cuban garden,
his prime interest was in orchids, which he
collected from many sources, including
Cuba, and cultivated in his greenhouses in
North Easton, Massachusetts. His estate,
called Borderland, consisted of some twelve
hundred acres and included a stone house
(completely fireproof for the protection of
his books) over which still hangs a huge
bronze and gold bell he purchased from the
sugar estate at Limones, once used to call
the slaves to and from work. This tract
of land and the imposing stone house
were transferred to the Commonwealth of

Massachusetts in 1971. Now called Border-
land State Park, it is open to the public.

Oakes Ames was a sensitive man with
the mind of a scholar and the soul of a poet.
He was deeply disturbed "by holding in
bondage one's fellow man and driving him
to and from work by the note of the dole-
ful bell, a kettle drum aided by the sting-
ing of the lash." It was this bell that he
brought back with him to hang over his
house in North Easton, as if it were a sym-
bol for him of the liberation of the slaves
of Cuba.

Ames fervently hoped that the garden
would be a thing of beauty in addition
to its practical and scientific value. He
introduced showy palms and other trees
for the purpose of enhancing the appear-
ance of the garden for visitors. A letter,
dated December 17, 1930, from Modesto
Martinez to Thomas Barbour, who suc-
ceeded Ames as director of the garden in
1922, demonstrates how ably Ames
succeeded:

The Garden is a Garden of Dreams, is a Paradise.
Even the oriental trees and palms remind the visi-
tor of the biblical legend; I found, bordering a
pond, the bullrushes where Moses was found by
the Pharaoh's daughter. One detail will give you
an idea of how I felt in that Garden: I was for ten
hours there, seeing every tree, every plant, every
bush, without any food because I was so happy
and I was learning so many things.

32 The Harvard Tropical Garden

today as a tourist attraction. He noted that
two tourist events involving the garden had
been mentioned in an article in El Nuevo
Herald (the Spanish language edition of the
Miami Herald), excerpted from the Cuban
newspaper Granma. These were, first, Cuban
Aviacion has inaugurated a new weekly route
from Toronto, Canada, to Cienfuegos, which
the paper called the "third most important
tourist destination in Cuba"; and, second, the
German cruise ship Miss Beilin included
Cienfuegos in its itinerary between Key West
and Grand Cayman. Granma emphasized that
tourists could enjoy the three four-star hotels
in the city, as well as other attractions, such
as the "Jardin Botanico."

The most recent information on the garden
comes from Professor Duane Kolterman of the
department of botany at the University of
Puerto Rico. Writing in Harvard Magazine
(July -August 1991), he notes that the garden
is administered by the Academia de Ciencias
de Cuba: "It has a director, a small scientific
staff, and maintenance personnel. While the
plant collections are in fine shape, the staff
expressed considerable interest in exchanging
information and library materials with
botanists and horticulturists outside of Cuba."

References

Atkins, E. F. 1926. Sixty Years in Cuba. Reminiscences

of Edwin F. Atkins. Cambridge, Mass.: River-
side Press, privately printed.

Barbour, T. 1943. Naturalist at Large. Boston: Little,
Brown.

Barbour, T., and H. M. Robinson. 1940. Forty years of
Soledad. Scientific Monthly 51: 140-146.

Grey, R. M. 1927. Soledad Estate, Cienfuegos, Cuba. In
Report of the Harvard Botanical Gardens.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. Press.

Popenoe, W. 1929. The Harvard botanic garden at Soledad.

Harvard Graduate Magazine 37 (3): 281-285.

Primary Sources from the Harvard University Archives:

Records of the Atkins Garden and Research Laboratory,
1898-1946; four containers. Subjects: SI Ames,
Oakes; S2 Barbour, Thomas; S3 Kevorkian,
Arthur; S4 Atkins Institution of the Arnold
Arboretum; S5 Botany — Cuba. Location: Har-
vard Archives: UAV231.xxx

Letters and writings of Ames, Oakes (botany); two boxes.

Contents: Letters to his family and autobi-
ographical writings (MS), 1902-1949. This col-
lection formed the basis for Pauline Ames
Plimpton's book about her father, Oakes Ames:
Jottings of a Harvard Botanist (1979).

Marion Davis Cahan is a graduate of Radcliffe College,
an architect, and presently a volunteer at the Arnold
Arboretum. She would be delighted to hear from any
readers who have visited the garden since the revolution.

CORRECTION: Ginkgo biloba

In the article that appeared in the last issue oiAinoldia (vol. 51, no. 2, 1991) entitled "Ginkgos
and People: A Thousand Years of Interaction," a sentence on page 10 reads, "The Ginkgo
tree is apparently mentioned in the oldest Chinese herbal, Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, dating
from 2800 b.c. (Michel and Hosford, 1988)." According to Dr. S.-Y. Hu, a former staff member
of the Arnold Arboretum, "I have turned the pages of the three volumes of Shen Nong Ben
Cao fing (1854 edition) page by page and checked the entries item by item. Ginkgo is definitely
not in this publication."

Since Michel and Hosford do not cite any sources for their statement that Ginkgo is
mentioned in Shen Nong Ben Cao fing, their statement must be considered as unfounded,
particularly in light of the fact that no Chinese-speaking authors mention this reference.

8MrTHS0NIAN tNSTtTUTiON UIBARIBS

14984 -

Smithsonian Institution Libra
Botany Branch Library
Washington. DC 20560