BULLETIN NO. 59. 
The so-called Tree-Lilacs are beginning to flower and promise to be 
exceptionally fine this year. There are three of these Lilacs, all 
natives of northeastern Asia, and they differ from the true Lilacs in 
the short tube of the corolla of the flower from which the stamens 
protrude, and for this reason were once placed in a different genus, 
Ligustrina. The three species produce white, bad-smelling flowers with 
an odor like those of the Privets, and their leaves fall early in the 
autumn without change of color, in this differing also from the true 
Lilacs which hold their leaves until late in the season. The first of 
the Tree-Lilacs to flower, Syringa amurensis, is a native of eastern 
Siberia; it is a small tree or tree-like shrub with flat, spreading or 
slightly drooping clusters of ivory white flowers which make a fine con- 
trast with the dark green leaves. The second species to flower is a 
native of northern China, Syringa pekinensis. This in cultivation is a 
shrub rather than a tree, although it sometimes reaches in this country 
the height and spread of branches of thirty feet. The stout stems are 
more or less pendent at the ends and are covered with lustrous reddish 
brown bark which readily separates into thin layers, like that of 
some of the Birch trees. The long, narrow, pointed leaves hang grace- 
fully, and the half-drooping flower-clusters, which are flat' and unsym- 
metrical, are smaller than those of the other plants of this group. 
Syringa japonica, a native of the forests of northern Japan, is the 
last of the Tree-Lilacs to flower. This is really a tree, often from 
thirty to forty feet high, with a tall stout trunk covered with lustrous 
brown bark, like that of a Cherry-tree, and a round-topped head. The 
flowers are produced in large, erect, symmetrical clusters which stand 
up well above the dark foliage and make this Lilac one of the most 
beautiful of the flowering trees which can be grown in this climate. 
The Tree-Lilacs are on the bank near the lower end of the Lilac 
Group, on the left-hand side of the path which passes up through this 
group. They are best seen, however, from the path which follows the 
top of the bank on which the Lilacs are planted. There is also a large 
plant of Syringa japonica among the Crabapples on the left-hand side 
of the Forest Hills Road, the site of the first Arboretum nurseries. 
This is one of the original plants raised from seeds sent from Japan 
to the Arboretum in 1876 by Colonel William S. Clarke, first President 
of the Massachusetts Agricultural College and of the Agricultural Col- 
lege at Sapporo, by whom this plant through the Arboretum was in- 
troduced into gardens. Syringa amurensis still remains comparatively 
rare in gardens; S. pekinensis has been occasionally planted in those 
of eastern Massachusetts, but S. japonica is now a common plant in 
the eastern states. All three species grow poorly in western Europe, 
and the size of the plants and the masses of flowers which they pro- 
duce here always surprise European visitors to the Arboretum. 
On the walk at the top of the Lilac bank one of the newer Lilacs, 
Syringa Sweginzowii, is in flower. This plant, which is probably a 
native of northern China or of Korea, is flowering in the Arboretum 
for the third year and appears to be perfectly hardy. It flowers very 
freely and the flowers, which are borne in narrow clusters, are slender 
with a long tube and are white tinged with rose color, and slightly 
fragrant. It is one of the latest, if not the latest, of the true Lilacs 
to flower here and promises to be a valuable garden plant in New 
England. 
