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TREES AND SHRUBS 



and easy culture, become almost naturalised in these islands, as now we see it in 

 copse and hedgerow, besides gardens large and small, and even in the town fore- 

 court. To every place where the Englishman goes to make a home he likes to have 

 about him Lilacs and Roses. As in the case of several other beautiful shrubs, the 

 improvement of the Lilac by the raising of new varieties is of comparatively recent 

 date. Gerard and Parkinson write of the blue Pipe and the white Pipe (the Lilac 

 being then called the Pipe tree, on account of pipes being made from its wood,', 

 besides the ordinary lilac-coloured sort, and Loudon, writing fifty years ago, only 

 enumerates the blue (coerulea), violet (violacea), the white (alba), a'nd alba major, 

 and one double called alba plena, seven in all. He just mentions, however, a fine 

 variety, Caroli (or Charles X., as we know it), which about that time had been raised 

 in France. This still is one of the choicest sorts, and particularly valuable for forcing 

 into early bloom in winter. Since that time there has been great activity in raising 

 new kinds in France, till now the list of named single sorts numbers upwards of 

 fifty, while the doubles are almost as numerous. There are far too many named sorts, 

 in fact, as the differences between many of them are of the slightest, so that the selection 

 of the best from catalogues, from the mere names and brief descriptions (not always 

 accurate) is perplexing to an amateur. To no raiser do we owe more to the improve- 

 ment of the Lilac of late years than to that famous veteran French hybridist, Victor 

 Lemoine of Nancy, who has made the genus Syringa one of his special studies, and 

 favoured as he is by a climate suitable for the free seeding of the Lilac, he has been 

 highly successful. There are four more or less distinct shades of colour among the 

 sorts, viz. whites, reds, pinks, and so-called blues. A selection of a dozen single sorts 

 would include the following, placed in order of merit : Whites Marie Le Gray, Alba 

 grandiflora. Blue or Bluish Coerulea or Delphine, Duchesse de Namours, Lindleyana 

 or Dr. Lindley. Reds or Purple-reds Souvenir de L. Spath, Philemon, Rubra insignis, 

 Mme. Kreuter, Camille de Rohan, Ville de Troyes. Pinks Lovanensis, Schneelavine. 

 This selection comprises the finest sorts, having the largest flower clusters in their 

 respective colours, and is representative of the whole of the sorts. Of the double 

 flowered sorts there has of recent years been a great number sent from French 

 nurseries, and only a few of the oldest sorts have developed into large specimens, 

 and therefore one cannot judge of their merits, as in the case of the single sorts. 

 The best varieties include the following dozen sorts : Lavender and Blue Leon 

 Simon, Renoncule, Alphonse Lavall^e (pale blue). Pinks President Carnot, M. de 

 Dombasle. Whites Mme. Abel Chatenay (the finest), Mme. Lemoine, Cassimir 

 fils. Reds President Gre"vy, Senateur Volland, Comte H. de Choiseul, Maxime 

 Cornu. In the Lilacs there is material for the tasteful planter of gardens, yet how 

 seldom does one see in ordinary gardens full advantage taken of them for producing 

 beautiful effects ! In the commqn way of planting they are dotted about shrub- 

 beries indiscriminately, and jumbled with trees and shrubs of a totally different 

 character, so that the Lilacs cannot be seen to the fullest advantage. An isolated 

 group of the choicest kinds, or even a simple hedge of the white or rich purple kinds 

 is seldom seen, except in some old gardens, and still less seldom does one see any 

 attempt at culture in the way of pruning and the cutting away of suckers. At Kew 

 one may see bold examples of grouping Lilacs, as well as well-developed specimens 

 standing alone on grass, while about London one sees in the market gardens fine 

 hedges of Lilac planted for the twofold purpose of cutting from and providing 

 shelter. Mr. Goldring writes in The Garden, " The most beautiful Lilac hedge I 

 have seen was that I enjoyed recently at the White Farm, Crichel (an enclosure 

 devoted to white animals), where there are glorious hedges of the pure white Lilac 

 Marie Le Gray in abundant flower quite appropriate to the white surroundings. 

 The only culture the Lilacs require is occasional manuring in light, poor soils, occa- 

 sional pruning so as to induce a bushy growth, as the growth is apt to become 

 'leggy,' and continuous attention in cutting away suckers, which are so plentiful as 

 to rob the tops. Two or three suckers should be allowed to grow so as to keep 

 up the supply of strong, vigorous flowering stems. Lilacs can be made to form 

 standards by keeping the bush from the outset to one stem, and when seen rising 

 out of a low hedge of Lilac, or a mass of the dwarf kinds, they have a pleasing effect, 

 and is one of the various ways they can be arranged in planting." 



