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exceptional value as an ornamental plant. Almost as early to flower 
is P. hirsutus from the southern Appalachian Mountain region. This 
is one of the smallest flowered species and in the Arboretum is a large 
loose-growing shrub of unattractive habit, and of comparatively little 
value as a garden plant. It is to be regretted that the Syringa of old 
gardens (P. coronarius) has been pushed aside by newer introductions 
and has become comparatively rare in at least this part of the country, 
for the flowers of no other Syringa have a more delicate and delightful 
perfume. This plant, which is a native of western Europe, reached 
England before the end of the sixteenth century, and was probably 
one of the first shrubs which the English emigrants brought with them 
to this country. Among the American species which should find a place 
in all gardens are P. inodorus, P. pubescens and P. microphyllus. The 
first is a native of the Appalachian Mountain Region and grows to the 
height of six feet; it has arching branches and large, solitary, pure 
white, cup-shaped, scentless flowers. By some persons it is considered 
the most beautiful of all Syringas. P. pubescens, often called P. gran- 
dijlorus or P. latifolius, is also a plant of the southern Appalachian 
region. It often grows to the height of twenty feet; the branches are 
stout and erect, the leaves are broad, and the slightly fragrant flowers 
are arranged in erect, from five- to ten-flowered racemes. This plant 
is more common in gardens than the last and when it is in bloom it 
makes a great show. P. microphyllus, which rarely grows more than 
three feet tall, has slender stems, and leaves and flowers smaller than 
those of any Philadelphus in cultivation. What the flowers lack in size, 
however, is made up in fragrance which is stronger than that of any 
other Syringa and perfumes the air for a long distance. The most dis¬ 
tinct and the handsomest of the Asiatic species in the Arboretum is 
Philadelphus purpurascens, discovered by Wilson in western China. 
It is a large shrub with long arching stems from which rise numerous 
branchlets from four to six inches long and spreading at right angles; 
on these branchlets the flowers are borne on drooping stalks; they are 
an inch and a half long, with a bright purple calyx and pure white 
petals which do not spread as they do on most of the species but form 
a bell-shaped corolla and are exceedingly fragrant. This is one of the 
handsomest of the shrubs brought from western China to the Arbore¬ 
tum. Philadelphus pekinensis from northern China and Mongolia is a 
stout bush rather broader than high which every year produces great 
quantities of small flowers tinged with yellow. Another interesting 
garden plant, P. Falconerii, which is certainly Asiatic and probably 
Japanese, has narrow lanceolate leaves and fragrant flowers in from 
one- to six-flowered racemes, and is distinct in the shape of its leaves 
and in its long narrow petals. The origin and history of this plant is 
not known. Some of the species hybridize freely and several of the 
handsomest of these plants are hybrids. One of the first of these hy¬ 
brids to attract attention was raised in France before 1870 by Mon¬ 
sieur A. Billard; it is known as Philadelphus insignis and sometimes 
is called Souvenir de Billard. It is one of the handsomest of the large- 
growing Syringas, and the last or nearly the last to bloom in the Ar¬ 
boretum, for the flowers will not be open for another month. A hybrid 
probably between P. grandiflorus of the Appalachian Mountain region 
with a species from our northwest coast appeared in the Arboretum a 
