This old-fashioned shrub, which was once found in almost every front yard, is not often called for now, and I do not think it is very generally known that there are a great many new varieties which are very desirable. The first of these to come into bloom is a double one. This has rather small flowers and the clusters are small, but it blooms several days earlier than any of the others and has a decided blue shade. Gigantea is indeed gigantic when compared with other varieties, in both plant and flowers, and is of a dark purplish lilac color. Virginalis, which is white, with a yellowish center, has larger and more compact clusters than the old white. Persian is a much more slender shrub, and the single florets are smaller, but the clusters are often extremely large. White Persian produces small clusters of small delicate flowers of a pear-white, and is one of the best and useful for cut-flowers. I have also another which I bought for White Persian, but which proved to be like the common Persian, except that the color verges more toward red than any other I have seen. It is among the best. A hedge-row made up of the foregoing and some other varieties, the names of which have been lost, is a very attractive object.

The lilac produces seed freely, and as the dry seed vessels disfigure the bushes and diminish the crop of flowers for the succeding year, they should all be carefully removed as soon as the flowers fade. All the lilacs are very fragrant. - Wm. F. Bassett, Hammonton, N. J