NOTES FROM EXPERIMENT STATION 181 



family and will often kill the main stem, but the plant is saved by throw- 

 ing up new shoots. I know of no way to keep out this pest unless it be 

 by keeping the stems washed with lime and sulphur. Fortunately the 

 borer seldom works on the tree lilac and is not bad with the summer 

 bloomers as with the common sorts. 



TLe Vulgaris Family. 



If you ask most people how many kinds of lilacs there are, they 

 will say two, the purple and the white. A bystander better informed will 

 say there are three and will add the Persian. The common kind seems 

 to vie with the Canada thistle and will often beat it in multiplying. 

 This family now so divergent in form and flowers is susceptible of 

 great improvement and the number of new ones placed on the market 

 is astonishing. Nor is this to be wondered at. Take a clump of fifty, 

 the flowers of which are well fertilized by the bees and you must have 

 a large variety as a result. Once start with a dozen or twenty varieties, 

 plant the seed and you must get something new. Some plant the seeds 

 of the old kind in hopes of securing something better, but as "like pro- 

 duces like" there is little show for improvement. 



In the new sorts now on the market there is a great difference in 

 their sprouting capacity. Charles the Tenth multiplies rapidly, while 

 Senator Volland and Pyranidalis increase slowly. 



We have in these numerous varieties a wide range of colors and both 

 tbe single and double flowering ones. 



Single Flowering. 



We have only a few of the long list 

 White — Vulgaris Alba. The old common sort, very hardy, flowers cream 

 colored, but a very shy bearer, penhaps it will not bloom oftener than 

 once in five years. 



Yerginal have a dainty white bloom, very sweet and attractive, but 

 this is not a profuse bloomer. 



Grandiflora Alba is a prolific bloomer and has great spikes of 

 lovely flowers. 



Frau pammann has large pinacles of pure white blooms, very de- 

 sirable. 



Marie Legraye is one of the most popular of this color and is much 

 for forcing in the green house. 



Princess Alexandra has a glorious crowns of purest white. 



Other Colors. 



Coerulea Superba. originated at Rochester. This is a strong grower, 

 Tery robust, flowers clear blue, of great beauty. 



Charles the Tenth is a general favorite, much use far forcing. It has 

 large trusses of reddish purple. 



Insignis Rubra, we have fund to be a very fine bloomer. 



