LIGUSTRUM. 



185 



LTGUSTRUM. 



grow vigorously in tlie oj)en groTind. 

 It is propagated by cuttings and 



LiBOCE'DRUS. — Coniferce. — This 

 is a magnificent tree from the coldest 

 part of South Amei-ica. L. tetragbna 

 is quite as hardy as the Araucdria 

 imbricdta, and as curious and orna- 

 mental. There are several species, 

 all natives of South America. 



Lichen. — Cryptogamia Lichenes. 

 — Moss-like plants, generally found 

 on old walls, desert heaths, or the 

 bark of old trees ; also frequently on 

 dead wood. 



Light is as essential as air and 

 water to plants ; and without 

 abundance of light, plants are 

 neither vigorous in themselves, nor 

 properly coloured. When green- 

 house plants are kept in imperfectly 

 lighted plant-houses, or in half- 

 darkened rooms, it is really painful 

 to witness the efforts they make to 

 catch as much light as they possibly 

 can ; their stems become weak, from 

 being unnaturally elongated, or 

 drawn up and twisted, in their 

 efforts to reach the light, and their 

 flowers are pale and of very little 

 value. In those towns where the 

 atmosphere is thickened by coal- 

 smoke, the light never has the same 

 beneficial effect as in the open 

 country, where there is nothing to 

 prevent it from exercising its full 

 influence over the plants. 



Li'gnum Vit^. — GiuLiacum o^^- 

 cinale is a tree, a native of the West 

 Indies, remarkable for the hardness 

 of its wood. It has blue flowers, 

 which are produced in succession all 

 the summer. It requires a stove in 

 England, and should be grown in a 

 mixture of peat and loam ; but it is 

 very rarely met with. 



LiGu'sTRUM. — Oleacece. — The 

 Privet is one of the most common, 

 but at the same time most useful, 

 of garden shrubs. The plant, in its 



wild state in Britain, is deciduous ; 

 but there is a variety, obtained 

 originally from Italy, which is 

 evergreen, and which forms hedges 

 for shelter of every size, from those 

 of six inches in width and one foot 

 in height, to hedges ten feet high 

 and two or three feet in width. 

 These hedges afford an excellent 

 shelter to exposed flower-gardens, 

 and also when planted on the south 

 side of a border, shady situations 

 for particular kinds of plants, such 

 as Primroses, Polyanthuses, the 

 rarer kinds of Ranunculacese, Tril- 

 liums, Cypripediums, Bog Orchideje, 

 and a great variety of others. The 

 Privet is preferable to all other 

 plants for garden-hedges, on account 

 of the rapidity of its growth, and 

 the nature of its roots, which are 

 chiefly fibrous, and never extend to 

 a great distance from the plant. 

 The tree Bos has the same proper- 

 ties, but then it is of much slower 

 growth. The Evergreen Privet is 

 also one of the best plants for verdant 

 architecture and sculpture ; because 

 it grows compact, is of a deep green 

 colour, bears the shears well, and 

 the leaves being small, they are 

 not disfigured by clipping, like 

 those of the Holly or the Laurel. 

 The Box equals it in the smallness 

 of the leaves, but it grows more 

 j slowly ; and though the Juniper and 

 ' the Yew surpass it, because they 

 I never show the mark of the shears, 

 I they grow much slower still. The 

 I Privet grows in any soil and situation, 

 even in narrow courts amid coal- 

 smoke, and it is readily propagated 

 by cuttings. It also grows under 

 the shade of trees, and is therefore 

 admirably adapted for thickening 

 and darkening narrow shrubberies, 

 and for screening plantations. As 

 a single object, the Privet is very 

 ornamental, whether covered with, 

 its white flowers or its dark-purple 



