PLATE L. 



1. SYRINGA VULGARIS. 



LILAC. 



THIS genus contains plants of the deciduous flowering shrubby 

 kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Diandria Monogynia, and ranks in 

 the natural order of Sepiarite. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one-leafed perianth, tubu- 

 lar, small: mouth four-toothed, erect, permanent: the corolla one- 

 petalled, funnel-form : tube cylindric, very long: border four-parted, 

 spreading and rolled back : segments linear, obtuse : the stamina 

 have two filaments, very short: anthers small, within the tube of the 

 corolla: the pist ilium is an oblong germ: style filiform, length of the 

 stamens: stigma bifid, thickish: the pericarpium is an oblong cap- 

 sule, compressed, acuminate, two-celled, two-valved : valves con- 

 trary to the partition: the seeds solitary, oblong, compressed, acu- 

 minate at both ends, with a membranaceous edge. 



The species cultivated are: 1. S. vulgaris, Common Lilac: 2. S. 

 Persica, Persian Lilac. 



The first is a shrub, which grows to the height of eighteen or 

 twenty feet in good ground, and divides into many branches; those 

 of the White sort grow more erect than the Blue ; and the Purple or 

 Scotch Lilac has its branches yet more diffused. The branches of 

 the White are covered with a smooth bark of a gray colour ; in the 

 other two it is darker; the leaves of the White are of a brighter 

 green; they are heart-shaped in all, almost five inches long, and three 

 inches and a half broad near the base, placed opposite, on foot- 



