BULLETIN NO. 54. 
The earliest Lilacs are already in flower and next week most of the 
varieties of the common garden Lilac ( Syringa vulgaris) will be in 
bloom. The promise of flowers is excellent, indeed it is several years 
since the plants have been so full of flower-buds as they are this 
spring. This year the earliest of the Lilacs is the white-flowering 
Syringa affirms from northern China and its variety with purple or 
mauve-colored flowers (var. Giraldii). These are tall plants of loose 
unattractive habit, but the leaves are broad and handsome and the 
flowers, which are produced in rather small clusters, are exceedingly 
fragrant. This fragrance and the fact that the flowers open so early 
and are not injured by late frosts make these Lilacs desirable garden 
plants in this part of the country. The white-flowered form is one of 
the few shrubs generally cultivated in the gardens of Peking. An- 
other north China species, Syringa oblata, is opening its pale purple 
flowers. This is a plant of much better habit than Syringa affinis, 
and its broad thick leaves, which turn to a dark wine color in the 
autumn, are handsomer than those of any other Lilac. The flower- 
buds, however, are often injured by spring frosts and it is not 
often that the flowers are in good condition. In time this Lilac grows 
into a broad, round-topped shrub eight or ten feet high and is well 
worth growing for its foliage; in cultivation it does not produce seeds. 
A hybrid of Syringa oblata and S. vulgaris (S. hyacinthiflora) is now 
in bloom. This is an old inhabitant of gardens and is a large, vig- 
orous and shapely plant with good foliage. The flowers are small, 
semi-double, bluish purple, very fragrant, and are produced in small 
clusters. As compared with some of the recent forms of the garden 
Lilac they are not remarkable, but this hybrid should find a place in 
every collection of Lilacs as its very early flowers prolong the Lilac 
season. This, thanks to the discoveries of recent years, now lasts 
here in ordinary seasons from the first of May to the first of July. 
Attention will be called in these bulletins to the different species, hy- 
brids and varieties as they come into flower. 
The flowers of the Crabapples are late this year and are only just 
showing in the buds the color of their petals. With a few warm days, 
however, some of these plants will be in full bloom; and it now seems 
probable that the Lilacs and many of the Crabapples will be in flower 
at the same time. The old collection of Crabapples is on the left-hand 
side of the Forest Hills Road, and there is a large collection at the base of 
Peter’s Hill. The plants in this supplementary collection are smaller than 
those on Forest Hills Road, but it now contains more species and 
varieties, and the plants of many of them promise to flower this year 
more freely than those in the old collection. In the neighborhood of 
the Administration Building there are some large plants of forms or 
hybrids of the Chinese Malus floribunda which are now covered with 
flower-buds. Among them are plants that carry their fruit through 
the winter and are particularly valuable as sources of winter bird-food. 
The Crabapples in the Arboretum form one of its important collections 
of small trees with conspicuous flowers, and as these plants are 
suited for the decoration of New England gardens they well repay 
careful study. 
