The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-31

Boston, May 30.-Are you fond of lilacs? Then next time you are in Boston in the later part of May you will want to visit the ever-growing collection of lilacs-- which is already the largest in the world at the Arnold Arboretum, the remark able museum of trees and shrubs be- longing to Harvard University and di- rected by Professor Charles Sprague Sar- gent, author of the monumental Silva of North America" During these last few weeks about fifty new varieties of the Syringa family, as it is technically known in the botany books, have been carefully guarded Tn the nursery depart ment of the Arboreturn, preparatory to their final setting out in the section as- signed to llacs Some of these diminu- tive bushes-which have to be watched so tenderly in the first stages of their growth but which are so singularly hardy once they are well up-are very recent acquisitions to this climate introduced hither from China. Japan. Corea. Sibe- ria and other countries of the Far East; others represent the latest successes of skilled French and German nurserymen in the production of new md startling hybrids. Additions are constantly being made to this famous collection which has already made possible the beautiful lilac path in the Arboretum the delight not only of Boston but of all Eastern Massachusetts.
 The great value of this lilac group at the Arnold Arboretum in the eyes of students of botany and horticulture con- sists of course not only in its size but in the fact that it is being set out in such a way that the $50 or more species and varieties represented will all be perma- nent; that they cannot in any case re- vert to common type. A century hence each shrub now planted will be repre- scented by descendants that have retain ed faithfully every characteristic of their ancestry. This desirable result is being accomplished simply by avoidance of grating. That is to say, every shrub Is raised entirely on its own .stock-a difficult slow and expensive process. but the only one that is scientifically correct. The point for the layman to note is that the ordinary commercial horticulturist imports rare cuttings from abroad which he gratis upon the stock of the common lilac-Syringa vulgaris. This is the cas- fest sort of process and the lilac. bush thus produced is, for the immediate pur- poses of the nurseryman, all that can be desired. That is to say. the grafted shoots bear wonderfully well for a short time; but presently borer hollows out the original trunk, killing the bush and thereby destroying for good and all the rare lilac graft since the numerous shoots that have sprung up about the parent stem are all found to be ordinary lilac branches quite uninfiuenced by the temporary graftings.
 Such a method of quick but evanescent results is naturally wholly inapplicable to a tree museum, such as the Arnold Arboretum really is. It has, therefore, been adopted as an invariable rule by MT. Jackson Dawson, the famous head gardener at the Jamaica Plain institu- tion, that even though with some varie- ties it takes three or four years to get them fit for planting. every lilac must as it were, stand on it's own roots The cuttings are usually forced in pots dur ing the fall and winter, in some cases undeR considerable heat. They ordinarily fill the pots before the following spring when they are set out in an open air nursery there to be watched over and to be removed to the hothouse again with the advent of winter. Most lilac cuttings are rather hard to root. but MT. Daw- sons success with them at the Arbor- etum has become proverbial among the horticuturists.
 The finished product, if one may so speak of this lilac industry, appears in the long row of shrubs and trees that borders one of the driveways in the Ar boretum. Here on one side of the path way next to the road you will see the smaller shrubs; on the other side those lilacs for the most part that rise to a
 
 are more worthy of the name of trees. The size of the specimens in the latter class is indeed to most visitors one Of the surprising facts about the collection. for there are lilacs in the Arboretum with trunks that are 15 or IS inches through. One of the oldest and most famous of these was given to the Arboretum near ly thirty years ago by President Clark of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col lege at Amherst. Others are direct inn portations from China, where, in the mountains about Picking. the lilacs grow to the bigness of many trees. ..... ..,...
 Just at this time of year the lilac path is certainly inferior to no other part Of this Arboretum in floral loveliness, and is especially notable for perfect harmon izing with the surrounding landscape. The, shrub and it's bloom seem in fact to be particularly appropriate to this cli- mate and people for the lilac is particu- larly the flower of the New England Spring-to such an extent that 1t might properly stand as candidate to become Yankeedom's floral emblem. The glori- ous blooms in the Arboretum range, of course. in hue from purest white to hot passionate tints that seem almost, as in Swinburnes line, stained as with wine and made bloody" but the whole mass of them fuses into what Thoreau once called "a tender. civil, cheerful color" that is about as warm as the grey-green of the foliage is cool.
 To finger among them in the rare days of early June is such a pleasure that one is involuntarily reminded of Long, fellows determination, T shall go in town while the lilacs are in bloom," and of Oliver Wendell Holmes. another great New England poet, who gave us the line. When lilacs bloom Summer cries Spring is here
 In fact a thorough going apotheosis of the Ulac-or laylock as Walter Savage Iandor delighted to spell it in imitation of the seventeenth century poets-is nat ural to this section of the country, for nrobably nowhere else in the world is the cult of the lavender and white blooms so cherished True. we do not anywhere in the United States treat 1t as hot-house flower after the mode of the Partsians. who esteem it most highly in the winter months; more often it is left to take care of itself to go struggling over the ground and reproducing itself without and if is a ranid enraa d.