forms in the collection. Several others are in cultivation, but the Ar- 
boretum collection shows the variation which cultivators have produced 
in the Lilac and contains all the most desirable and valuable kinds. 
New varieties are produced every year but these show no real improve- 
ment over many of the forms produced many years ago, and the ap- 
pearance of new varieties more valuable than those already in cultiva- 
tion can hardly be expected. 
The Arboretum is often asked for a list of the best garden Lilacs. 
No two persons, however, will agree on what are the best Lilacs for 
this is a matter of individual taste. Some persons prefer the white 
flowers and others the very dark flowers. Some lovers of Lilacs think 
that none of the new varieties compare in beauty with the purple- 
flowered Lilac of old gardens. One of the most satisfactory of the 
lilac-flowered forms is Charles X. Among the single-flowered white vari- 
eties no plant produces larger flowers in greater abundance than Marie 
Legraye; for those persons who admire double-flowered Lilacs none is 
better than the late-blooming, white-flowered Madame Lemoine. Phil- 
emon, Ludwig Spath and Congo are as good as any of the very dark- 
flowered varieties, and among the pink-flowered varieties Macrostachya 
is a first-rate garden plant. All the forms are equally hardy and 
equally vigorous; they all grow with nearly equal rapidity. Many of 
these forms, however, are so nearly alike that it is not easy to dis- 
tinguish them, and in a collection of ten or twelve can be obtained 
all that are best worth growing. 
In addition to S. vulgaris there are now established in the collection 
twenty species of Syringa and some of them are beautiful and desir- 
able garden plants. The first of the species to flower is S. affinis from 
northern China; this is one of the most generally cultivated of all 
shrubs in the gardens of Peking. The pure white flowers are borne in 
loose, rather narrow, open clusters, and are extremely fragrant. There 
is a mauve-flowered variety of this species, var. Giraldii, which was 
discovered a few years ago in western China by a French missionary 
and which appears to be unknown in Chinese gardens. The two forms 
are very hardy, grow rapidly, and are blooming well this year. The 
habit of these plants, however, is loose and not attractive, but they 
deserve a place in every collection on account of their very early and 
fragrant flowers. Another Chinese Lilac, S. oblata, flowers nearly as 
early. This plant has the handsomest leaves produced by any Lilac; 
they are broad, thick and shining, and in the autumn, unlike those of 
any other Lilac, they turn a deep dark wine color before falling. This 
plant grows into a large, broad symmetrical shrub. The flowers are 
pale lilac color and very fragrant, but unfortunately the flower-buds 
are often injured by late frosts and the brittle branches are frequently 
broken by ice. When this Lilac is in good condition it is one of the 
handsomest of the collection, but it cannot be depended on. This year 
the flower-buds have been killed. 
Another north China species, S. pubescens, is one of the best of the 
genus as a garden plant. It is a tall shrub with erect stems, small 
leaves and large clusters of pale lilac-colored flowers remarkable for 
the long tube of the corolla and for their delicate fragrance; indeed 
the flowers of S. pubescens are more fragrant than those of any other 
Lilac, and for this fragrance alone this plant should find a conspicuous 
place in every northern garden. 
