22 
in St. Petersburg under the name of S. amurensis. This handsome 
plant was growing in the Harvard Botanic Garden in Cambridge ten 
years later. The first of the Chinese Lilacs to reach Europe, Syringa 
oblata, was described in London in 1859 and was imported from Eng- 
land into the United States as early as 1869 and perhaps earlier. This 
is one of the first Lilacs to bloom in the spring and produces large, 
very fragrant, lilac-colored flowers in comparatively small-flowered 
clusters. From all other Lilacs it differs in its thick lustrous leaves 
which turn scarlet in the autumn. It is a large round-topped, hand- 
some shrub, but the flower-buds are often injured by extreme winter 
cold or spring frost. A hybrid between the double-flowered Syringa 
vulgaris azurea plena and S. oblata made by Lemoine in 1859 produced 
the second hybrid Lilac, S. hyacinthi flora, a large, round-topped shrub 
with small clusters of semidouble, lilac-colored, remarkably fragrant 
flowers. In 1878 this Arboretum first raised the great Japanese Tree 
Lilac {Syringa japonica) from seed received from Sapporo in Hokkaido. 
For the introduction of new Lilacs into the United States 1882 is an 
important date, for in that year the Arboretum received from Dr. 
Bretschneider the physician of the Russian Embassy in Peking, seeds 
of Syringa villosa, S. pubescens and S. pekinensis. S. villosa, which 
has proved a valuable plant in this country where it is a round-topped, 
handsome bush ten or twelve feet high and wide, with large, broadly 
elliptic to oblong leaves bright green and dull on the upper surface, 
and compact, broad or rarely narrow clusters of flesh-colored or nearly 
white flowers. As a garden plant this is one of the handsomest of the 
Lilacs for its habit is excellent, and it flowers freely every year, the 
flowers remaining in good condition for several days. Unfortunately 
they have a rather disagreeable odor like those of the Privet. S. vil- 
losa does not open its flowers until after those of all the forms of S. 
vulgaris have disappeared. By some persons it is considered the most 
attractive of all Lilacs. Certainly the flowers of no other Lilacs are 
so delightfully fragrant, and for this fragrance this shrub might well 
find a place in every northern garden. Unfortunately plants in the 
United States have not yet produced fertile seeds, and as this species 
has proved unusually difficult to increase by cuttings it is still one of 
the rarest Lilacs in American gardens It can of course be increased 
by grafting it on other Lilacs or on Privet, and sooner or later no doubt 
fertile seeds will be produced on some of the plants established in Mas- 
sachusetts. S. pubescens, which has been in bloom for several days, is 
one of the earliest Lilacs to flower. It is a tail shrub with erect stems, 
small leaves, and broad clusters of pale lilac-colored flowers with a long 
slender corolla-tube, and unusually fragrant. In the hands of the skil- 
ful French gardener L. Henry Syringa villosa crossed with S. Josikea 
has produced the third race of hybrid Lilacs to which the general name 
of S. Henryi has been given. Plants of this breed are large, very 
vigorous, perfectly hardy and grow rapidly. The foliage resembles in a 
general way that of S. villosa, but the flowers are violet-purple or 
reddish purple, and are produced in great clusters twelve or fifteen 
inches long and broad. One of the handsomest of this race has violet- 
purple flowers and has been named Lutece. The var. eximia has more 
compact clusters of rose-colored or reddish flowers which after opening 
