18 
common Lilac and not a hybrid. By fertilizing the flowers of Syringa 
vulgaris azurea plena with the pollen of varieties of the common Lilac, 
Lemoine produced the first important double-flowered Lilac, S. Lemoinei 
and others, and by again crossing these with 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 many 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 dis¬ 
tinguished by close comparison. It is important to cultivate them all 
in the Arboretum for study and comparison, 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 already 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 persons living in the 
neighborhood of Boston to make their selection is to study the Arbor¬ 
etum 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 superior to those which have been grafted on other varieties 
of the common 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 pur¬ 
chase and of the stock. Nurserymen also use the Privet as a stock on 
which to graft Lilacs. This is a better stock than the Lilac for if it 
produces suckers they are easily recognized and can be removed, and 
if the grafted plants are set deep Lilac roots are soon produced. Privet- 
stock is strongly advocated by many good growers of Lilacs but others 
still believe that the best plants are raised from cuttings which can be 
made in winter from hard wood, but best from the soft wood taken 
in late June or early July. No one should ever buy a Lilac plant 
grafted on the root of another Lilac. 
The Persian Lilac, the Syringa persiea of botanists, was known in 
England as early as 1658. This is a beautiful, hardy plant with slen¬ 
der, drooping, wide-spreading branches, narrower leaves than those of 
the common Lilac, and small fragrant, lavender-colored flowers in short 
compact clusters. There is a variety with white flowers and another 
with laciniately lobed leaves. For many years it was universally be¬ 
lieved that because Linnaeus had named it Syringa persiea this plant 
was a native of Persia or of some country adjacent to Persia. Meyer, 
collecting in China for the Department of Agriculture of the United 
