IN lilacdom" 221 



After the Common Lilac has finished flowering, 

 or nearly so, the Persian Lilac (S. persica), with its 

 huge clusters of small fragrant flowers which weigh 

 down the slender branches, assumes the throne. 

 This lovely Lilac was cultivated in England as early 

 as the middle of the seventeenth century but it is 

 now all too seldom seen in gardens. In cultivation 

 it is a broad and shapely bush of medium height 

 with small leaves and is extraordinarily floriferous. 

 The type has pale rosy purple flowers, and so, too, has 

 the form laciniata with deeply incised leaves, but 

 there is also a white-flowered variety (alba). 



Closely related to the Persian Lilac is S. pinnatifolia, 

 a new-comer which I had the pleasure of discovering 

 on the borders of China and Thibet and of introducing 

 to cultivation in 1904. This species is remarkable 

 in having pinnately divided leaves and in this char- 

 acter is distinct from all others. It has small pale 

 mauve-colored flowers which are borne in broad 

 pyramidate clusters; but thus far, under cultivation, 

 it has not flowered freely and unless it improves with 

 age it will have to be considered more in the light of a 

 curiosity than anything else. 



The most distinct of all Lilacs is the new S. reflexa 

 with narrow, cylindrical flower clusters from nine to 

 twelve inches long which arch downward from near 



