PEIVET. 



Liffustrum vulgare. Nat. Ord. , 

 OleacccR. 



'EW of our readers will fail 

 to recognise the subject 

 ' of our present illustration, 

 though probably many of 

 them will be more familiar 

 with it as a plant of the 

 gardens than of the woods. 

 Its utility has doubtless 

 been the cause of its wide 

 diffusion throughout Eng- 

 land, yet it is a true 

 wilding, and throughout 

 the southern part of our 

 island may be commonly 

 found in woodlands and 

 thickets. Gerarde's de- 

 scription of it is so happy 

 that we cannot forbear to 

 quote it; indeed, many of the old herbalists were masters 

 of terse detail, and in a few lines give one all the 

 essential facts. " Privet is a shrub growing like a hedge- 

 tree, the branches and twigs whereof be straight and covered 

 with soft glistering leaves of a deepe green colour, like 

 those of periwinkle, but yet longer, greater also than the 



