Syringa vulgaris ultimately for the plants, was Pietro Andrea Mattioli, as one can tell from a unique copy of Tradescant's plant list in his Lambeth garden, an adjunct of his "Musaeum Tradescantianum"; it was printed, though probably not published, in 1634: it lists "Lilac Matthioli". That Tradescant's "lilac of Mattioli's" was a white one is shown by Elias Ashmole's manuscript list, "Trees found in Mrs Tredescants Ground when it came into my possession" (1662): "Syringa alba". In the American colonies, lilacs were introduced in the 18th century. Peter Collinson, F.R.S., wrote to the Pennsylvania gardener and botanist John Bartram, proposing to send
Bartram's Garden facade between 1758–1770. The house still stands, as does his original garden (circa 1728) and greenhouse (1760). Three generations of the Bartram family continued the garden as the premier collection of North American plant species in the world. The current collection contains a wide variety of native and exotic species of herbaceous and woody plants. Most were listed in the Bartrams' 1783 broadside "Catalogue of American Trees, Shrubs and Herbacious Plants" and subsequent editions. The garden also contains three notable trees: Bartram's Garden is the oldest surviving botanic garden in the United States. John Bartram (1699–1777), the well-known early American