60 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES I— LIGUSTRUM VULGARE. Linn. 



Plate DCCCCIV. 



Jieich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MLXXIV. Figs. 1, 2. 

 Billot, Fl. GalL et Germ. Exsicc. No. 271. 



Young branches scarcely pubescent at the apex. Leaves ellip- 

 tical, scarcely evergreen, acute, entire, glabrous. Plowcrs in very 

 compact much-branched panicles. 



In woods, thickets, hedges, and rocks. Common, and generally 

 distributed in England, but probably planted in many of its 

 localities — almost certainly so in Scotland. 



England, [Scotland.] Shrub. Summer. 



A shrub 3 to 8 feet high, with numerous straight opposite 

 branches ; bark rather smooth, olive. Leaves opposite, very shortly 

 stalked, 1 to 2 inches long, remaining the greater part of the 

 winter, but mostly falling off before the young leaves expand in 

 spring, unless the plant be clipped, when they remain for a much 

 longer period. Elowers funnelshaped-salvershaped, white, J inch 

 across, in very dense compound pyramidal panicles at the extremity 

 of the branches : these panicles are produced on the shoots of the 

 year. Corolla-segments 4, ovate-oblong, hooded at the tips. 

 Stamens large, whitish. Berries scarcely the size of red currants, 

 purplish-black, shining. Seeds 1 or 2. 



Common JPrivet. 



French, Tro'ene Gormnun. German, Gemeiner Hartriegel. 



This well-known shrub is known also as the English Myrtle and the Prim-print 

 in old Euglish. Dr. Prior tells us that the latter name was formerly given to the 

 primrose from the French printemps. " In the middle ages, however, the primrose 

 was called in Latin Ligustrum, as may be seen in a Nominale of the fifteenth 

 century, in Mager and Wright's Vocabularies, and several other lists ; and so late 

 as the seventeenth century, in W. Cole's ' Adam in Eden,' where he says of 

 Ligustrum — ' This herb is called Primrose. It is good to potage.' But Ligustrum 

 was used on the continent, and adopted by Turner as the generic name of the Privet ; 

 and Prim-print as the English of Ligustrum, thus came to be transferred from the 

 herb to the shrub." 



Authors not so deeply versed in etymology as Dr. Prior, tell us that the ancient 

 name of Prim-print arose from its being used for verdant sculptures or topiary 

 work, and for primly-cut hedges. Sometimes by the French it is called ^;rt«i blanc, 

 which seems to imply " a little white shrub ;" and this whiteness of its blossoms is 

 alluded to by Virgil and other poets. It is believed that the Privet was known to the 

 Greeks under the name of ^;/it7/yrea, and it is certain that the Romans knew it, as 

 both Virgil and Pliny mention it, the latter stating that the berries were given to 

 chickens to cure them of the pip. It is described by Gerarde as growing naturally in 



