218 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



Such collections are of great interest and of much 

 educational value; but private gardens cannot ac- 

 commodate such numbers. 



If the best only be desired no such quantity is 

 necessary, for within the limits of a dozen the best 

 and most desirable kinds of the Common Lilac may 

 be had. In recent years many of the seedlings raised 

 and named and sold by nurserymen show no improve- 

 ment on the older varieties. The beauty limit ap- 

 pears to have been reached and it is evident that no 

 great additional improvement can now be expected 

 from seedlings of the Common Lilac. But granted 

 that a dozen will include all that is best in these plants 

 the selection is onerous and difficult since individual 

 taste is all important. Some people do not like the 

 double-flowered sorts and others have preferences 

 for certain shades of color. I am without prejudice 

 or bias in these matters and of the sorts of the Com- 

 mon Lilac of proven merit in the Arnold Arboretum 

 I would select the following dozen: Marie Legraye, 

 Princess Alexandre (single white) ; Madame Lemoine, 

 Miss Ellen Willmott (double white) ; Gloire de Moul- 

 ins, Macrostachya (pink); Charles X (rosy lilac); 

 Volcan, Congo, Philemon, Ludwig Spath (dark red- 

 purple); Justi (blue). Be it understood all these are 

 forms of the Common Lilac and it is not supposed that 



