2"* S. VII. June 4. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



461 



The wood of the lilac and that of the Philadel- 

 phus (P. coronarius) each having a pith, tubes of 

 the finest Turkish pipes are manufactured from 

 both. From possessing this tubular quality in 

 common, each in old English, the lilac and the 

 Philadelphus, acquired the name of the pipe-t?'ee. 

 No wonder, then, that both received the title of 

 Syringa (a tube or pipe). 



As we employ the terra lilac to express a cer- 

 tain colour, bluish purple, there is no doubt an 

 apparent impropriety, as suggested by your cor- 

 respondent, in speaking of a white lilac. But we 

 also say a white rose, a white pink, a white violet ; 

 though "violet," "pink," and "rose" are all names 

 of colours. Surely the lilac may well endure a 

 wrong which is shared by the rose, the pink, and 

 the violet. 



Of the term " Roman willow," applied to the 

 lilac in Lincolnshire, I can find no mention either 

 in modern books of botany, or in the old " Her- 

 balls." Something, however, may be suggested 

 in the way of explanation. First, with regard to 

 the epithet " Roman" we may remark that for- 

 merly French beans were called " Romane beanes ;" 

 and a certain kind of pease was styled " pisum 

 Romanum, " in English Romane pease." The 

 French have also a Roman lettuce ("laitue ro- 

 maine "). Perhaps some early specimens both of 

 the lettuce, the, "pease," the " beanes," and the 

 "lilac or lillach" came or were supposed to have 

 come, directly or indirectly, from Rome. Thus 

 one sort of lilac was called " Syringa Italica (Park- 

 inson, p. 1469). 



Secondly, it is not easy to ascertain how a lilac 

 should ever have been called a " willow" unless it 

 be that the term willow may in former days have 

 been as loosely applied as were some of its con- 

 geners. If amongst ourselves the lilac is provin- 

 cially termed ihQ Roman willow, the Agnus castus 

 was called in old French the Saulx gauloise, or 

 Gallic willow (Cotgrave), and the common privet 

 went in German by the name of Spanische Weide, 

 or Spanish willow (Campe), though neither privet 

 nor Agnus castus is properly a Salix. 



If anything farther be required in explanation of 

 the Lincolnshire connexion between the Salix and 

 the Syringa, let it suffice to say that Syringa (trv- 

 pt77a) meant originally an instrument of rustic 

 music, a Pan's pipe ; and no doubt the Lincoln- 

 shire lads know as well as the lads of Kent how to 

 knock out a tvhistle from the cutting of a willow- 

 branch. Thomas Boys. 



year 1597. The word Syringa is supposed to be 

 derived from "Zvpiv^, an Arcadian nymph, or more 

 properly here, a pipe. The tubes of the finest 

 Turkish pipes are manufactured from the wood 

 of it. Lilac is a Persian word signifying flower. 

 Lelilas, Fr. ; Die Syrene, Ger. ; and Syringa, Ital. 

 The common lilac seems to have been introduced 

 before or during the reign of Henry VIII., for in 

 the inventory taken by order of Cromwell of the 

 articles in the gardens of the Palace of None- 

 such, are mentioned six lilackes. The species are 

 the following: — 



Syringa vulgaris - - Common lilac. 



p. viotacea - . _ Purple. 



y. alba - _ . White. 



Chinensis - - _ Chinese. 



5. Bothomagensis - - Hybrid. 



Persica ... Persian. 



p. alba - - - White. 



•y. lancinata - - - Cut-leaved. 



Even in old Gerard's Herlal of 1794, Mr. T. 

 may find it called Syringa, and, old as the book 

 is, an excellent wood-cut of the white and blue 

 species. J. W. G. Gutch. 



In reply to a question asked by Mr. Thompson, 

 concerning the ^rope?' botanical name for the lilac, 

 the following information may perhaps be deemed 

 acceptable. Although Mr. Thompson cannot al- 

 low it to be a Syringa, it is such nevertheless ; 

 the common lilac being Syringa vulgaris, a native 

 of Persia, and introduced into this country in the 



WILLIAM OF WTKEHAM. 



(2"'i S. vii. 197. 420.) 



The interval of moi-e than two months that has 

 occurred since C. E. L. asked the question in your 

 pages " who was the father of William of Wyke- 

 ham?" without eliciting any other notice than 

 that of J. E. J., who purposely abstains from pro- 

 nouncing any decided opinion upon it, leads to 

 the inference that the subject is considered to 

 have been already sufficiently ventilated, and that 

 the popular conclusion, that he received his name 

 "a loco unde natus est, et non a parentibus," 

 cannot now be controverted. 



With the undisputed fact, that in that age ec- 

 clesiastics almost universally adopted a sacerdotal, 

 instead of their family, name, and in the face of 

 the evidence that has been adduced to prove that 

 this eminent prelate followed the prevalent custom, 

 it would evidently requii'e more positive proof 

 than has yet been brought forward to reverse the 

 judgment. The facts recorded' by your corre- 

 spondent are strong confirmation that the family 

 name, before the bishop's time, was not De Wyke- 

 ham ; and in the sketch of his life, in Foss's 

 Judges of England (vol. iv. p. 113.). I find the 

 argument in support of this view summed up 

 thus : — 



" The fact that several whom he acknowledges as his 

 kinsmen bore the same name, would only be conclusive 

 of the contrary [presumption], if it could be shown that 

 they were so called at an early period of his life ; but, as 

 the first notice of any of them does not occur until long 

 after he had acquired eminence, it will readily be con- 

 ceived that, in an age when surnames were frequently 

 changed, all those who could claim relationship with him 

 would, with his consent, be desirous of assuming the 



