82 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



one of the old gardens of New England and the latter's age of 

 innocence. But since the war there is a new and glorious asso- 

 ciation which let none of us forget : I mean the moving courage 

 of that great Victor Lemoine of Nancy to whom we owe the 

 new beauties of this lovely plant. 



No one has voiced the praises of the lilac as they should be 

 sung — a writer with the gift, say, of him who wrote those 

 beautiful words of the sweet pea: "The sweet pea has a keel 

 that was meant to seek all shores; it has wings that were meant 

 to fly across all continents; it has a standard which is friendly 

 to all nations; and it has a fragrance like the universal Gospel — 

 yea, a sweet prophecy of welcome everywhere, that has been 

 abundantly fulfilled." 



Few flowers have received so rapturously perfect an expression 

 of praise as this. The lilac deserves one. Its virtues are : graceful 

 beauty of form and color of flower; the aspect of the tree or 

 shrub on which these are borne; its fragrance, unique, and filled 

 with sentiment for Americans; and the ease with which it may 

 be successfully grown. Unlike some garden subjects, the older 

 a lilac grows, the finer becomes its appearance. As instances, 

 take the specimens of syringa puhescens at Highland Park, 

 Rochester, or the great lilac trees, named hybrids, at the Arnold 

 Arboretum, Boston. The wonderful lilac collections of the Arnold 

 Arboretum and of Highland Park, Rochester, New York, Mr. 

 Havemeyer's interesting collection on Long Island, and the 

 fine gift of over two hundred of this genus to Montclair, N. J. 

 by Mr. Frank T. Presby, place this beautiful May-flowering 

 shrub within reach of most dwellers in the northern Atlantic 

 seaboard states; and so infectious is the love of and desire for 

 beauty that I predict it will not be long before the glorious 

 newer lilac hybrids and species will be found over all of the 

 northern part of the country. 



