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first shrubs which emigrants brought with them to this country. 
Among the American species which should find a place in all gardens 
are P. inodorus, P. pvbescens and P. microphyllus. The first is a 
native of the Appalachian Mountain region and grows to a height of 
six feet; it has arching branches and large, pure white, cup-shaped, 
solitary, scentless flowers. By some persons it is considered the most 
beautiful when in bloom of the whole genus. P. pubescens, often called 
P. grandiflorus or P. latifolius, is also a plant of the southern Appa- 
lachian region. This sometimes grows to the height of twenty feet, 
with stout, erect branches, broad leaves and slightly fragrant flowers 
in erect five- to ten-flowered racemes. This plant is more common in 
gardens than the last, and when it is in bloom it makes a great show. 
P. microphyllus, which rarely grows more than three feet tall, has 
slender stems, and leaves and flowers smaller than those of any Phil- 
adelphus in cultivation. What the flowers lack in size, however, is 
made up in fragrance which, is stronger than that of any other Syringa. 
The most distinct and handsomest of the Asiatic species in the Arbor- 
etum is P. purpurascens, discovered by Wilson in western China. This 
is a large shrub with long arching stems from which rise numerous 
branchlets from four to six inches long and spreading at right angles; 
on these branches the flowers are borne on drooping stems; they are 
an inch and a half long, with a bright purple calyx and pure white 
petals which do not spread as they do on most of the species but form 
a bell-shaped corolla and are extremely fragrant. This certainly must 
be numbered among the handsomest shrubs brought from western China 
by Wilson to the Arboretum. 
Philadelphus pekinensis from northern China and Mongolia is a stout 
shrub rather broader than high which every year produces large quan- 
tities of small flowers tinged with yellow. Another interesting garden 
plant is P. Falconeri which is certainly Asiatic and probably Japanese; 
it has narrow lanceolate leaves and fragrant flowers in from one- to 
six-flowered racemes. The origin and history of this plant are not 
known. Some of the species hybridize freely, and several of the hand- 
somest of the Syringas are hybrids. One of the first of these hybrids 
to attract attention was raised in France before 1870 by Monsieur A. 
Billard and is known as P. insignis and is sometimes called “Souvenir 
de Billard.” It is one of the handsomest of the large growing Syringas, 
and the last or nearly the last to bloom in the Arboretum. The flow- 
ers will not be open for nearly another month. A hybrid probably be- 
tween P. grandiflorus of the Appalachian Mountain Region with a 
species from our northwest coast appeared in the Arboretum a few 
years ago and has been called P. splendens. It is a large and vigorous 
shrub with unusually large flowers, and one of the handsomest of the 
Syringas in the collection. P. maximus, a supposed hybrid of P. lat- 
ifolius from the southeastern United States and P. tomentosus from 
the Himalayas, grows to a larger size than any other of these plants. 
It is not rare in Massachusetts gardens in which plants from twenty 
to thirty feet high can occasionally be seen. 
The crossing about thirty years ago by Lemoine of P. coronarius 
with P. microphyllus has produced an entirely new race of Syringas 
