Syringa villosa, another north China species, is valuable for it is the 
last of the true Lilacs to flower. It is a large, vigorous shrub, of ex- 
cellent habit, with large leaves. The flowers are produced in clusters 
which vary in size on different individuals; they vary, too, in color from 
rose to flesh color and occasionally nearly to white. This plant is there- 
fore best propagated by cuttings taken from the best varieties rather 
than by seeds. The flowers have a disagreeable odor. Only two of 
the new Chinese species will flower this year, S. Meyeri and S. Julianae. 
The former has dark purple flowers, with corolla tubes even longer than 
those of S. pubescens, and is interesting because it begins to flower 
freely when not more than a foot or two high; its history, too, is in- 
teresting. The plants in the Arboretum were raised from seeds gath- 
ered in China by F. N. Meyer, a collector of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture. Meyer made no herbarium specimens and 
has no recollection of the place where he found the plant. No other 
plants but those in the Arboretum were raised, and the only knowl- 
edge of the species has been obtained from the small plants cultivated 
here. S. Julianae, discovered in western China by Wilson, is of the 
same general character as & pubescens, and is a conspicuous plant in 
flower as the outside of the corolla is dark purple and the inner sur- 
face of the corolla lobes white. The flowers are fragrant but not so 
fragrant as those of S. pubescens . The plant is very hardy but it is 
too new in cultivation to make it possible to judge of its real value as 
a garden plant. 
Of old-fashioned shrubs now too seldom seen in gardens none are more 
beautiful than the Persian Lilac {S. persica) and its white-flowered 
variety. The Persian Lilac is a native of southwestern Europe where it 
is found from the Caucasus to Afghanistan and was cultivated in 
England as early as the middle of the seventeenth century. In gar- 
dens it forms a wide and shapely bush which, after the common 
Lilac has finished its bloom, covers itself with long clusters of small, fra- 
grant flowers which weigh down the slender branches. This is one of 
the parents of the hybrid S. chinensis already mentioned. This hybrid 
is a shrub as large or larger than the common Lilac, with slender 
branches, leaves intermediate in shape between those of its two parents, 
and large, elongated clusters of purple-red flowers intermediate also in 
size between those of its parents. There is a variety of this hybrid 
with nearly white flowers. 
There are three tree-like Lilacs with large unsymmetrical clusters of 
small white flowers which belong to a section of the genus distinguished 
by the very short tube of the corolla. The first of these to flower, 
S. amurensis, comes from eastern Siberia; this is followed by S. pekin- 
ensis from northern China, and later by S. japonica, the last and most 
tree-like of the Lilacs. 
The Arboretum Lilacs have never given promise of a more abundant 
crop of flowers, and it is probable that the largest number of plants 
will be in the best condition during the week beginning on the 14th of 
May. 
The Arboretum will be grateful for any publicity 
given these Bulletins. 
