Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. IX 
NO. 5 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. MAY 18. 1923 
Lilacs. The word Lilac as most persons understand it means the 
plant with purple or with white flowers of old-fashioned gardens, and 
this Lilac, the Syringa vulgaris of botanists, and its numerous varieties 
are the most popular shrubs which can be grown in northern gardens, 
and the flowers of no other plant bring so many visitors to the Arbor¬ 
etum. This Lilac reached western Europe at the end of the sixteenth 
century by way of Constantinople and Vienna; and until a few years 
ago Persia was believed to be its native country, now, however, it is 
known to be a native of the mountain valleys of Bulgaria. It is not 
known when this plant first reached America, for there is no authentic 
record of it in this country before 1785 when Washington planted it at 
Mt. Vernon. It probably came much earlier for the colonists often 
brought favorite plants with them from their English homes. The wild 
form of Syringa vulgaris was raised from seeds sent to the Arboretum 
from Bulgaria in 1896. The flowers are purple and resemble those of 
the purple Lilac of old gardens but the flower-clusters are narrower 
with less crowded flowers. There is no record of the date of the first 
appearance of the white-flowered form which was first described in 1623. 
In the Arboretum can be seen good examples of the Lilacs of old New 
England gardens on the eastern slope and near the summit of Bussey 
Hill where two long rows of them were planted more than a century 
ago on each side of one of Mr. Befijamin Bussey’s garden walks. 
The improvement of the garden Lilac dates only from 1843 when a 
nurseryman at Liege in Belgium raised a plant with small double flow¬ 
ers. Nothing is now known of the origin of this plant but as it was 
called Syringa vulgaris azurea 'plena it was probably a seedling of the 
