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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
to a larger size and is more compact in habit ; the leaves 
remain on the branches much later in the season, and 
the fruit is larger and of a deeper color. The Snowball 
of old-fashioned gardens is a form of this plant in which 
all the flowers are sterile (var. sterile). There is a 
form with yellow fruit (var. xanthocarpum) and a dwarf 
form (var. nanum) which is a low, compact, little bush 
which rarely flowers. The American species, V. amer- 
icanum or Cranberry-tree, is a plant of looser habit, with 
translucent orange-red fruit which hangs on the branches 
until early spring. The leaves turn in the autumn to 
bright shades of orange and scarlet. The species of 
northeastern Asia. V. Sargentii, has larger sterile flowers 
than the other species and is decidedly a handsomer 
flowering plant. The long-pointed leaves are interest¬ 
ing and of a good color, but the fruit is small, dull in 
color and inconspicuous. These Viburnums are all 
flowering in the Viburnum Collection where many of 
the Asiatic species are also now in flower. 
Early Summer Lilacs. The so-called Persian Lilac 
(Syringa per ska) is now in flower. This is a native of 
Afghanistan and is said to have been cultivated in Persia 
and India from time immemorial and to have reached 
eastern Europe nearly three centuries ago. It is a broad, 
rather low shrub with long-pointed leaves and small fra¬ 
grant flowers in few-flowered clusters which are 
crowded at the ends of the slender drooping branches 
and appear like one long narrow inflorescence. The 
flowers are pale lilac color. There is a white-flowered 
form (var. alba) and one with deeply lobed leaves (var. 
laciniosa). The Persian Lilacs are graceful and de¬ 
lightful plants, and although they were early brought to 
the United States they are now too rarely found in Amer¬ 
ican gardens. Crossed with the common Lilac ( S. vul¬ 
garis) the Persian Lilac produced in the Botanic Garden 
at Rouen a hybrid with broader leaves and immense clus¬ 
ters of reddish flowers intermediate in size between those 
of its parents. This hybrid is one of the most vigorous, 
largest and most useful of all Lilacs. Unfortunately it 
has been called Syringa chinensis; it is also known as S. 
rothomagensis and as the Rouen Lilac. There is a var¬ 
iety (var. alba) with pale pink, not very attractive 
flowers, and there are forms with flowers deeper red than 
those of the type, and with double flowers. 
Syringa villosa is a large, very vigorous and hardy 
shrub from northern China which is now, June 9th, just 
beginning to open its flower-buds. The flowers are pale 
rose-color or rarely nearly white, and are produced in 
immense quantities in short broad clusters. In spite 
of the disagreeable odor of the flowers this is a valuable 
plant as it is one of the last of the true Lilacs to flower 
and greatly prolongs the season of Lilac flowers. Crossed 
with the Hungarian S. Josikaea, which is also now in 
flower, S. villosa has produced in Paris a hybrid race to 
which the name of S. Henryi has been given. One of 
these hybrids known as Lutece is now in flower and is 
one of the handsomest of garden Lilacs. It is a large 
and vigorous shrub with large, dark green leaves and 
great clusters of blue-purple flowers. Some of the new 
Chinese species will flower a little later, and these will be 
followed by the tree Lilacs of northeastern Asia. 
Robinia Kelseyi. This Rose Acacia, which was dis¬ 
covered only a few years ago on the slopes of the southern 
Appalachian Mountains, proves a hardy and valuable 
garden plant. The flowers are smaller and lighter- 
colored than those of the well known Rose Acacia ( R. bis- 
pida) which flowers a little later, and the branches are 
not covered with the viscid hairs to which the Rose 
Acacia owes its name. II. Kelseyi is a shrub sometimes 
growing from six to eleven feet high, with slender stems 
and branches, leaves composed of nine or eleven narrow 
lanceolate leaflets which are bronze color as they unfold, 
and short racemes appearing with the unfolding leaves 
and composed of from four to seven flowers produced 
from the axils of the leaves of short lateral young branch- 
lets which grow from end to end of the branches of the 
previous year. Sometimes as many as four flower- 
clusters are developed on one of the short lateral branch- 
lets, and as the flowers in the upper clusters on the 
branchlet do not open until later than those of the lower 
clusters the plants are covered with fresh flowers for a 
long time. This Robinia will probably prove to be a bet¬ 
ter garden plant than the Rose Acacia, for although the 
flowers are not as large or of as deep rose-color it does 
not spread by underground stems, a habit which makes 
the Rose Acacia a weed which once established, it is al¬ 
most impossible to control. 
The Pawpaw (Asimina triloba). A colony of this 
handsome tree, which is very common in the southern 
states but at the north occurs in only a few isolated sta¬ 
tions, is now established on Hickory Path near Centre 
Street, and this year the leafless branches have been well 
covered with the curious, dark-brown, bad-smelling 
flowers. Under favorable conditions the Pawpaw is 
sometimes a tree forty feet high with a tall, stout trunk; 
it has handsome drooping, dark green leaves often a foot 
long and six inches wide, but it is chiefly interesting as 
the only extra-tropical North American tree, with the ex¬ 
ception of the wild Plums, which produces edible fruit. 
This is borne in few-fruited clusters and is from three to 
five inches long and from an inch to an inch and a half 
in diameter, greenish yellow, becoming almost black 
when fully ripe with semitranslucent, sweet, luscious 
flesh. The ripe fruit does not bear transportation and is 
rarely sold in markets, and so is little known except to 
boys who live near Pawpaw thickets. The American 
Genetic Association, however, has now taken up the pos¬ 
sibility of the improvement of this fruit and is offering 
prizes for information about the largest trees, and about 
trees, regardless of their size, which bear fruit of un¬ 
usually good quality. 
“We don’t wish to be without “The National Nur¬ 
seryman.” Dominion Nursery Co., Vancouver, B. C. 
