SHRUBS 119 
had to know about a lilac was that it was either 
white or purple; nowadays there are double and 
single ones, with enormous trusses and such fancy 
names as Comte Horace de Choiseul and Souvenir 
de Louis Spaeth. White has cream and yellowish 
shades, while purple is varied by hues styled red, 
blue, lavender, lilac and violet. Lilacs, too, may 
be Hungarian, Persian or Rouen and—you must 
not say lilac but syringa. Once upon a time syringa 
meant the white flower which is called mock orange 
in its larger form. Now you have to say phila- 
delphus for mock orange, and there are double 
and single named kinds. Snowball is viburnum; 
if you know a dozen species you are not through 
with the cultivated list. The old pink and white 
weigelas have a host of variants, altheas go by 
name instead of color, spirea and hydrangea spe- 
cies have multiplied and you are obliged to ex- 
plain sometimes which one of four forsythias you 
mean. 
So, before ordering even these familiar flower- 
ing shrubs, study the catalogue for a line on the 
improvements and variations of the type; better 
still, visit a nursery in the blooming season. Study, 
in particular, the new lilacs, altheas, weigelas and 
deutzias, the unfamiliar viburnum, spirea and hy- 
drangea species, the variety of bush honeysuckles 
and the double mock orange. The althea, or rose 
of Sharon, which is being developed largely in 
the double forms, ought to be on every place, as 
it blooms later than most shrubs. 
