Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. VI 
NO. 9 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN. MASS. JUNE 18. 1920 
Late Flowering Lilacs. Among these are plants which can add much 
to the beauty of northern gardens in the last weeks of June and in 
early July. They are eastern Asiatic with the exception of the Hun- 
garian Syringa Josikaea, which is the only one of these plants which 
has not been introduced into gardens since this Arboretum was estab- 
lished, and belong to the group of true Lilacs in distinction to the 
“Tree Lilacs” which bloom later and differ in their stamens which are 
longer than the corolla, while in all other Lilacs the stamens are shorter 
than the corolla and are hidden in its tube. The first of the late 
flowering true Lilacs from eastern Asia which reached the Arboretum 
was Syringa villosa which was raised here in 1882 from seed sent by 
the late Dr. Bretschneider, at that time physician attached to the 
Russian Embassy at Peking. This has proved the most valuable of 
these plants. It is perfectly hardy; it grows rapidly into a large, 
round-headed, compact bush which is often fifteen feet high and broad; 
it flowers every year, and few shrubs are more floriferous. The flowers 
are arranged in long, narrow clusters and are pale rose-pink, flesh 
color, or occasionally nearly white. The leaves, which are long, com- 
paratively narrow, long-pointed, and dull green, are not attacked by 
the fungus which often disfigures in summer the leaves of the common 
garden Lilacs. Unfortunately the odor of the flowers, which is not 
very strong, however, is distinctly disagreeable. This is the only one 
of the late-flowering Lilacs which has been used successfully by the 
plant breeder. Crossed in the nurseries of the Museum d’Histoire Nat- 
urelle in Paris with Syringa Josikaea, it has produced a race of Lilacs 
of vigorous growth with the habit of the Chinese plant, and in some 
of its forms with flowers more or less deeply tinged with the violet 
color of the Hungarian parent. To the handsomest of these hybrids 
with violet-colored flowers the name “Lutece” has been given. This has 
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