1G2 
THE NATIONAL NUESERYIVIAN 
forms willi darker nal flowers and with nearly white 
flow (M’S. 
In an issue of The Garden Magazine, Mr. Theodore A. 
I lav('m(‘y(‘r desei'ihes the development ot the modern Li¬ 
lacs, w hieh, ac(*ording to him, date irom 1843, no mention 
in his ])ap(!r being jnade of Syringa chinensis. In 1843 a 
nurseryman at Liege, in Lelginm, produced a Lilac with 
small douhle flowers. Nothing is said of its parentage, 
hut as il w as called Sgringa vulgaris flare plena Liberli, 
and later Sgringa vulgaris azurea plena, it w as probably 
a s(‘(‘dling of the common Lilac and not a hyl)rid. This 
plant is not in the Arboretum collection, and if it is knowm 
lo any reader of this Bulletin the Arboretum will be glad 
lo hear from him, for although it probably has little to 
r(!comniend it, as an ornamental plant this Lilac has his- 
lorical interest and for that reason should find a place in 
tin; Ai'horetum collection. It w as this plant that Lemoine, 
lh(^ Lremdi hybildizer, selected as the seed-bearing parent 
in his lirst attempt to improve the garden Lilacs, fertiliz¬ 
ing the flow ers w ith pollen of the handsomest varieties of 
tlu; common Lilac of that day and of a Chinese species, 
Sgringa oblala, which had been found by Fortune in a 
Shanghai garden and sent by him to England nearly sixty 
y(!ars ago. This Chinese Lilac is distinguished from all 
other Lilacs by the broad, thick, lustrous leaves which 
turn deep wine color in the autumn. The flowers are 
light lilac color, exceptionally fragrant, and are borne in 
short, eompact clusters. The fruit is not known. This is 
one of the earliest Lilacs to bloom here, but unfortunately 
the flower-buds are often injured or destroyed by late 
li’osts. For this reason, although the flowers are not sur¬ 
passed in color and fragrance by those of many Lilacs, 
this phuit cannot be recommended for general cultivation 
ill Ibis j)art of the country. 
The crossing of Syringa oblala and S. vulgaris azurea 
plena produced a plant which has been called Sijringa 
hyarhdhiflora. This is a vigorous shapely shrub with 
h'aves I he shape of those of its Chinese parent, 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. oblala. This plant is interesting as the second of the 
lour siiecies-hybrids of Lilacs w hich are now' known, and 
valuable for its very early fragrant flowers. It has prob- 
ably played, too, an important part in the improvement of 
the douhlc-flowered forms of the common Lilac which 
have been iiroduced in recent years by Lemoine and other 
thiropean nurserymen. Syringa hyarint hi flora is not 
oltiMi found ill American gardens, but it is wadi estab- 
lish(‘d in th(‘ Arboridum collection. 
My Imlilizing the flow^ei-s of Syringa vulgaris azurea 
plena with tln^ varieties of the common Lilac, Lemoine 
produced the lirst important double-flowered Lilacs, S. 
Lemoinei and others, and by again crossing these with im- 
proved forms of the common Lilac the double-flowered 
Inlacs of recent yeai’s have been made. My the erossim^ 
ot varictii's and by cand'ul sehn-tion the flowers of the 
rominoii Lilac ha'.a bi'cn gradually changed in size and 
m color m the la thiily years, hut unfortunately the 
lowers ol some n:. -dcrn Lilacs liavi* lost a good deal of 
ll>e I ragn-ance of th- old-fashioned Lilac, which, once en¬ 
joyed, IS never forgotten. There are too many varieties 
ol 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 distinguished by 
close comparison. There are more than two hundred ol 
these named varieties of Syringa vulgaris now in cultiva¬ 
tion. It is important to cultivate them all in the Arbore¬ 
tum for study and 'comparison, but in a private garden 
everything that is best in the lorms ol Syringa vulgaris 
can be found in not over a dozen of the single-flowered 
and a dozen of the double-flowered forms. The Arbore¬ 
tum does not undertake to name the tw^enty-lour best var¬ 
ieties. The selection must be left to the person who is 
going to i)lant 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 Arboretmn collection: 
In planting Lilacs it must be remembered that plants 
on their own roots are superior to those wdiicli have been 
grafted on other varieties of the common Lilac, for Lilacs 
produce many root-suckers. These often grow vig¬ 
orously, 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 dif¬ 
ferent branches flowers of his original purchase and of 
the stock. Nurseiymen 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 nurserymen rarely 
adopt this method for it takes a little longer to produce 
saleable plants than it does by grafting, but the plants on 
their own roots are so much more valuable than grafted 
plants that no one should ever buy a grafted Lilac. 
Syringa pinnatifolia is one of the Lilacs discovered by 
Wilson in western China which flow^ered two years ago 
lor first time in the Arboretum. The small nearly white 
flowers in small clusters are less beautiful than those of 
almost any other Lilac, but the plant is of considerable 
interest, as it is the only Lilac with pinnate leaves. It is 
with the other Chinese Lilacs on the path at the top of 
Ihe bank on the left-hand side of the Bussey Hill Boad 
oceupied by the Lilac Collection. 
REALIZING THE SITUATION 
If there was need last year for greatly increased pro¬ 
duction in the commercial orchards, as well as the back¬ 
yard and vacant lot gardens of the Dominion, that need 
is vastly greater this year. Few in Canada realize how 
acute that need is. It seems as though it is not until we 
see people in actual want or w^c are faced with the impos¬ 
sibility of satisfying our own needs that it becomes pos¬ 
sible lor most ol us to actually realize the seriousness of a 
situation concerning which w^e may have been warned for 
months. 
in portions ol Europe and Asia thousands of people, in¬ 
cluding little children, have already died of starvation. 
Ihe aiea afleeted by the lood shortage has increased, and 
continues to increase rapidly. Lord Rhondda, the British 
food Controller, said recently: 
“The food w^anted by mankind does not exist. The 
woid shortage is not strong enough for the situation. To 
