23 
ent, which turns reddish in autumn but without the brilliant colors of 
the Chinese plant. The flowers are small and double, in|small clusters, 
bluish lilac and as fragrant as those of S. oblata. This plant is inter- 
esting as the second of the four species-hybrids of Lilacs which are 
now known, and valuable for its very early fragrant flowers. It has 
probably played, too, an important part in the improvement of the 
double-flowered forms of the common Lilac which have been produced 
in recent years by Lemoine and other European nurserymen. Syringa 
hyacinthiflora is not often found in American gardens, but it is well 
established in the Arboretum collection. 
By fertilizing the flowers of Syringa vulgaris azurea plena with the 
varieties of the common Lilac Lemoine produced the first important 
double-flowered Lilacs, S. Lemoinei and others, and by again crossing 
these with improved forms of the common Lilac the double-flowered 
Lilacs of recent years have been made. By the crossing of varieties 
and by careful selection the flowers of the common Lilac have been 
gradually changed in size and in color in the last thirty years, but 
unfortunately the flowers of some modern Lilacs have lost a good 
deal of the fragrance of the old-fashioned Lilac, which, once enjoyed, 
is never forgotten. There are too many varieties of the common 
Lilac now cultivated. Some of them with different names given to 
seedlings in different nurseries and often in different countries are 
identical, and others are so much alike that they can only be distin- 
guished by close comparison. There are more than two hundred of 
these named varieties of Syringa vulgaris now in cultivation. It is 
important to cultivate them all in the Arboretum for study and com- 
parison, but in a private garden everything that is best in the forms 
of Syringa vulgaris can be found in not over a dozen of the single- 
flowered and a dozen of the double-flowered forms. The Arboretum does 
not undertake to name the twenty-four best varieties. The selection 
must be left to the person who is going to plant them, for no two persons 
agree about Lilac flowers. There are between one hundred and sixty and 
one hundred and seventy named varieties of this Lilac in the Arboretum 
collection. The flowers are fast-opening, and the best way for per- 
sons living in the neighborhood of Boston to make their selection is to 
study the Arboretum collection, and make notes on the color and size 
of the flowers and the size and shape of the flower-clusters. 
In planting Lilacs it must be remembered that plants on their own 
roots are supe^rior to those which have been grafted on other varieties 
ofthecommon Lilac, for Lilacs produce many root-suckers. These often 
grow vigorously, so that a person who buys a fine named variety may 
in a few years find that the suckers from the root on which it was 
grafted have overpowered and killed his named variety, or that he has 
a bush producing on different branches flowers of his original purchase 
and of the stock. Nurserymen also use the Privet as a stock on which 
to graft Lilacs. But Lilacs should never be grafted. Although they 
can be propagated in winter by cuttings of hard wood, the best way 
is to make soft wood cuttings in late June or early July. American 
