BRIEFER ARTICLES 
PURPLE BUD SPORT ON PALE FLOWERED LILAC 
(SYRINGA PERSICA) 
(WITH ONE FIGURE) 
In the present state of our knowledge of bud sports, every well 
authenticated case is distinctly worthy of record. Fig. 1 represents a 
panicle of a bud sport of the Persian lilac, and beside it a panicle of the 
form on which it appeared. The bush is one of the very pale-flowered 
varieties, by no means white, which is best described as lilac-tinged. 
The bud sport was deep purple, of exactly the same color as the darkest 
flowered variety of the Persian lilac commonly grown. The sport 
was free from all suspicion of being a graft, occurring, as it did, at the 
summit of a bush ro ft. high, which had never been grafted, with normal 
panicles of the same age below it. The bush has flowered for 10 years or 
more, without ever having produced any other than tinged flowers. 
Dr. Louts P. Hatt, of Ann Arbor, on whose grounds it occurred, and who 
called it to our attention, is a keen observer, and would surely have 
noticed unusual panicles if there had been any before this year. Par- 
ticular pains were taken to ascertain that the sport was truly such, and 
not a graft, for grafted lilacs are, of course, not uncommon. The evi- 
dence that the dark-colored inflorescence was the result of a bud sport 
was altogether clear. 
The flowers of.the variation differed from those of the form on which 
it occurred not only in color but also in size. Data for several size 
characters, based in each case upon 50 measurements, are as follows: 
Normal form Purple bud sport 
Spread of oo 
ne eee tpeeies coe 10.4-13.3 mm. 15.3-18.4 mm. 
cee by owen ees 2.2 16.6 
Length . tube 
a Oh ae 9.9-11.9 t0.2711.8 
tice hee tescas rt.3 11. 
WwW idth corolla lobes 
engl 2.7-4.1 5-5 
CON Slices 3.6 4.75 
Botanical Gazette, vol. 65] [560 
