HYBRIDS BETWEEN THE COMMON LILAC, &c. 311 
raised from seed of the laciniate Lilac; their sterility, absolute or nearly 
absolute, can scarcely be understood in this case. I have heard them quali- 
fied as sports. It appears to me indeed probable enough that the variety 
with whitish flowers (S. persica alba), fig. 113, arises by dimorphism 
from the rose-coloured variety, because it is identical with it in all parts, 
and only differs in the hue of its flowers. ButI do not admit that the rose- 
coloured variety arose in the same fashion from the laciniate type, because 
the dimorphism generally affects only one character, form or colour of 
the foliage, form or colour of the flowers, for example, but not the whole 
of the characters at once. Now the Lilac called the Persian Lilac is 
profoundly different from the laciniate Lilac in all respects. I consider 
it as a spontaneous hybrid between the laciniate Lilac and the common 
Lilac, that is to say, that it should belong, as well as the white flowered 
form derived from it, to the section of Varin Lilacs. 
If we compare the foliage of the various forms enumerated here, it 
will be remarked that the laciniate Lilac, fig. 114, on the one part, and 
the common Lilac, fig. 112, on the other part, are extremely different 
from each other, while the Varin Lilacs, Saugé, bicolor, and Metz Lilacs 
obtained by artificial crossing between the common Lilac and the laciniate 
Lilac, and finally the Lilacs called Persian with rose flowers and white 
flowers, present the greatest resemblance to each other. 
To sum up, this is the conclusion to which we are led by the hybrid- 
isation. We have to do with two widely separated species, the Syringa 
vulgaris and the Syringa (persica) lacimata. Between these two types we 
find a whole series of hybrid forms or sports of hybrid forms by 
dimorphism. The Varin Lilac and its varieties are but an item in 
this series of the same class as those I have produced by synthesis, and 
probably also of the same class as the Lilacs called rose-flowered and 
white-flowered Persian Lilaes. 
