Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL VIII 
NO. 6 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN. MASS. MAY 17. 1922 
Lilacs. A brief summary of the Lilacs now in cultivation will serve 
to show how large has been the addition to the material available for 
the' making of gardens in cold countries in comparatively recent years. 
And what is true of Lilacs is true also of Malus, Pyrus, Crataegus. 
Philadelphus, Diervilla, Viburnum and many other genera of trees and 
shrubs. Before the middle of the last century gardeners in Europe 
and America had at their disposition the common Lilac {Syringa vul- 
garis), and a few of its varieties including the forms with lilac and 
white flowers, the forms of the so-called Persian Lilac {Syringa 'per- 
sica), with rose-colored and white flowers and one with deeply divided 
leaves (var. laciniata), the Himalayan Lilac {S. Emodi) and the Hunga- 
rian Lilac {S. Josikaea). In the Botanic Garden at Rouen in France a 
hybrid between Syringa vulgaris and S, persica appeared or was arti- 
ficially produced in 1810 for which the correct name is unfortunately 
Syringa chinensis, a name first given to it by mistake. This hybrid, 
which has slender stems, leaves intermediate in size between those of 
its parents and immense clusters of narrow-tubed, red-purple fragrant 
flowers, is still one of the best of Lilacs. There is a form with nearly 
white flowers (var. alba). As early as 1843 a Belgian nurseryman had 
raised a double-flowered form of the common Lilac which was called 
S. vulgaris azurea plena and which was later used by Lemoine in his 
plant breeding attempts to improve the flowers of the common Lilac. 
In 1850, therefore, it was possible to plant four species of Lilac with a 
few varieties of two of these species and one hybrid Lilac. In 1857 
one of the so-called Tree Lilacs which had been found in the valley of 
the Amour River in eastern Siberia by Russian botanists was described 
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