XLVIII. OLEA CE.E : S YRI NGA. 



635 



It requires to be grown in moist soil, either sandy peat or ?andy loam, and 

 in a sheltered situation. It may be propagated by layers ; but as seeds are 

 easily imported from America, and as the plant does not root very readily, 

 that mode is not often adopted. It may also be propagated by grafting on the 

 common ash. 



O r LEA. Though most of the species of this genus are too tender to stand 

 the open air in Britain, yet there is one variety of the common olive, obtained 

 from Nikita in the Crimea, which has lived 

 through the winter of 1837-8, as a standard, 

 in the Horticultural Society's Garden, and 

 O. americana L. (Jig. 1236.) has lived 

 against a wall at Messrs. Loddiges. This 

 tree is the devil- wood of the Americans, a 

 native of the southern states, as far north 

 as Norfolk in Virginia. It is sometimes 

 found as high as 30 or 35 feet; but its 

 ordinary height is 10 or 12 feet. The leaves 

 are 4 or 5 inches long, of a shining light 

 green ; and they remain on two or three 

 years. The flowers are very small, of a 

 pale yellow, and strongly scented ; appear- 

 ing about the end of April. The fruit is 

 round, about twice the size of the common 

 pea ; and, when ripe, of a purple colour, 

 approaching to blue. It ripens in America 

 in October, and remains attached to the tree during a great part of the winter, 

 forming a fine contrast to the foliage. 



1236. OHea americana. 



Sect. II. 



GENUS IV, 



SYRI'NGA L. THE LILAC. Lin. Syst. Diandria Monogynia. 



Identification. Lin. Gen., No. 22. ; Don's Mill., 4. p. 51. 



Synonymes. Lilac Tourn. Inst. t. 372., Juss. Gen. p. 105. ; Lilas, Fr. ; Flieder, Ger. ; Lilaco, Ital. 



Derivation. From sirinx, the native name in Barbary. The tubes of the finest Turkish pipes are 

 manufactured from the wood of this shrub ; and also from that of the Philadelphus coronarius, 

 to which the name was originally given. Hence the old English name of Pipe Tree, which was 

 applied both to the Philadelphus and the Syringa. Lilac is from lilac, or lilag, the Persian word 

 for a flower. 



Gen. Char., fyc. Calyx small, 4-toothed. Corolla funnel-shaped, with a 4- 

 parted limb. Stamens 2, enclosed. Stigma trifid. Capsule ovate, com- 

 pressed, 2-celled, 2-valved, 2-seeded; valves navicular, with a narrow 

 dissepiment in the middle. (Don's Mill.) 



Leaves simple, alternate, exstipulate, deciduous ; entire. Flowers in 

 thyrsoid terminal panicles, oppositely branched, purple or white. Shrubs 

 or low trees ; natives of Europe or Asia. 



Highly valued in the gardens of temperate climates for the beauty and 

 fragrance of their flowers, and the profusion in which these are produced 

 in spring. The natural mode of propagating is by suckers, which all the 

 species produce in abundance ; and they will all grow in any common soil. All 

 the species may be grafted on the ash (See Gard, Mag.^ 1840, p. 37.) 



