APRIL, 1916 
Syringa reflexa has pale rose colored flowers in foot- 
long clusters that hang downward. This should interest 
the hybridist 
valuable as a parent as we shall see when we 
come to the hybrids. 
Of all late-flowering Lilacs the most strik- 
ingly handsome is S. Wolfii, native of Mand- 
shuria and introduced to cultivation at Petro- 
grad by Russian botanists. From there it was 
sent to the Arnold Arboretum in 1906, before it 
had received a name. In foliage and habit it 
resembles S. villosa but it is a much more 
vigorous and a taller plant. The flowers are 
small, dark blue-purple to rose-purple and are 
borne in erect, branched clusters often two feet 
high and a foot broad and are produced in great 
rofusion. Unfortunately the flowers lack the 
ragrance of the Common Lilac and of several 
of the Chinese species but in spectacular beauty 
it transcends them all. 
The Himalayan Lilac (S. emodi) is among 
the last of the true Lilacs to flower and is less 
hardy than any other. It is a large bush or 
bushy tree occasionally eighteen feet tall, with 
oblong pointed leaves, light yellow-green above, 
silvery gray and hairy below, and bears long 
narrow clusters of small white fragrant flow- 
ers. In its pale foliage it is distinct from other 
Lilacs and it is one of the very few species 
which thrive better in Great Britain than in 
New England. 
In 1915, the last of the true Lilacs to flower 
in the Arnold Arboretum was S. Sweginzowiti, a 
newcomer from northwestern China. This is a 
shrub of compact habit with rather slender 
dark red branches and twiggy branchlets with 
dark dull green sharp-pointed leaves and long 
narrow clusters of delicately fragrant blos- 
soms. The flowers are flesh-colored in bud and 
nearly white when fully open and the corolla- 
tube is slender and about half an inch long. 
Of true Lilacs some half dozen other species 
are in cultivation in the Arnold Arboretum and 
promise to have their own peculiar sphere of 
THe 1G. ASR SDH PN SoM eANG eAeZ hI ON: i 
usefulness in gardens. But at present we do 
not know enough about their garden value, and, 
since they are scarcely obtainable, further men- 
tion of them here may be omitted. 
THE TREE LILACS 
The Tree Lilacs, of which there are three 
species all native of northeastern Asia, differ 
from the true Lilacs in having a short corolla- 
tube and protruded stamens. They are large 
shrubs or small trees with large, broad, much- 
branched clusters of white flowers of unpleas- 
ant odor. They blossom when the flowers of the 
latest of the true Lilacs are fading. The first 
of these Tree Lilacs to bloom is S. amurensis, 
from the Amur region of northeastern Asia. 
This is a small bushy tree with dark green 
leaves and flat spreading and slightly drooping 
clusters of ivory-white flowers. The next to 
open its flowers is S. pekinensis, native as its 
name suggests of northern China, and is a large 
bush or bushy tree from twenty-five to thirty 
feet high and as much through the crown. The 
branches are more or less pendent at the ends 
and are clothed with lustrous reddish brown 
bark which separates into thin layers like that 
of certain Birch trees. The pointed leaves are 
long and narrow and hang gracefully and are 
surmounted by half-drooping flower clusters 
which are flat and unsymmetrical and smaller 
than those of the other two species of this 
group. It was introduced to cultivation by Dr. 
E. Bretschneider who in 1882 sent seeds to the 
Arnold Arboretum, where it flowered for the 
first time in 1889. 
The last to flower is S. japonica and this is 
the best known of the three Tree Lilacs. It is 
common in the moist woods and forests of cen- 
tral Japan and increasingly so northward and 
throughout the Hokkaido, from hence it was 
introduced to cultivation by Colonel William S. 
Clark, who sent seeds to the Arnold Arboretum 
in 1876. At its best it is a round-topped tree 
from thirty to forty feet tall with a clean stout 
trunk covered with smooth lustrous bark like 
that of a Cherry tree. The leaves are large, 
thick and dark green and the flowers are borne 
in large erect symmetrical clusters. The wood 
is very durable in the ground and for this 
reason is esteemed above that of all other trees 
by the Ainu people of Hokkaido for making 
their inaos or wooden wands used for religious 
and ceremonial purposes. These inaos are 
looked upon as continual guardians against 
harm from Nature, disease and evil spirits. 
THE SPLENDID HYBRIDS 
Apart from the very numerous seedling vari- 
eties of the Common Lilac there are a number 
of very beautiful Lilacs of hybrid origin and in 
the years to come a great development of this 
favorite shrub may be looked for along these 
lines. Hybrids are usually more vigorous in 
growth than species and often vastly more use- 
ful as garden plants. Plant-breeding is full of 
surprises and it is often the case that parents 
of indifferent or relatively little garden beauty 
by judicious mating yield offspring of ines- 
timable value. Already this has happened in 
Lilacdom. The Hungarian S. Josikaea is per- 
haps the least beautiful of all known Lilacs 
but crossed with the Chinese 8S. villosa it has 
given rise to a handsome new race known col- 
lectively as S. Henryi after the originator, 
155 
Syringa Wolfii, most striking of the late blooming 
Lilaes. Flowers small, dark blue-purple, in 2-foot high 
clusters 
Monsieur L. Henry, a gardener at one time at- 
tached to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. The 
best known and most beautiful of these hybrids 
is Lutéce, which is a compact, fast-growing, 
large shrub with foliage resembling that of 
S. villosa, and large erect clusters of rose- 
purple flowers and it is one of the latest of all 
ilacs to blossom. 
The oldest of Hybrid Lilacs and one of the 
brightest jewels in the crown of Lilacdom is 
the Rouen Lilac which appeared in the Botanic 
Garden at Rouen in 1795. It is a hybrid be- 
tween the Common Lilac (S. vulgaris) and the 
Persian (S. persica) but through an error as 
to its origin it was christened S. chinensis—a 
name at once unfortunate and utterly mislead- 
ing. In gardens it is also known as S. rotho- 
magensis. It is one of the most vigorous of all 
Lilacs and in its slender branches and narrow 
leaves and its small flowers borne in enormous 
clusters it resembles its Persian parent while. 
the color of the flowers shows the influence of 
the Common Lilac. In addition there is a form 
(var. alba) with nearly white flowers. 
Another interesting hybrid, also raised in 
France, is 8S. hyacinthiflora which is a cross 
between the Common Lilac (S. vulgaris) and 
the Chinese S. oblata. It is a large and vigor- 
ous and shapely plant with good foliage and 
small elusters of small, semi-double, bluish- 
purple, very. fragrant flowers. It is less orna- 
mental than many other Lilacs and as a garden 
plant it is chiefly valuable on account of its 
earliness to blossom, a character which it in- 
herits from its Chinese parent. 
There are other hybrids of value though less 
well known, but enough has been written here 
to prove, if it be necessary, that even if the 
Lilac has entered into its kingdom the frontiers 
of its dominion have not yet been approached. 
[Next month: “New HeErRBAcEouS PLANTS 
FROM CHINA.” ] 
POPULAR GARDEN FORMS OF THE COMMON LILAC 
Mme. Lemoine (dbl. white) Miss Ellen Willmott (dbl. white) 
Charles X. (rosy lilac) Gloire de Moulins (pink) 
Macrostachya (pink) Marie Legraye (single white) 
