636 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRIT ANN I CUM. 



ft 1. S. VULGA V RIS L. The common Lilac. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 11. ; Don's Mill., 4. p 51. 



Synony-tncs, Lilac rtug&tia Gcertn ; Pipe Privet, or Pipe Tree ; Lilas commun, Fr. \ gemeiner 



Flieder, Ger. ; Lilla, or Lilac turco, Ital. 

 Engravings. Lam. 111., t. 7. ; Schmidt Baum., t. 77. ; N. Du. Ham., t. 61. 



Spec. Char.y %c. Leaves ovate- cordate, acuminated. (Don's Mill.) A de- 

 ciduous shrub. Persia and Hungary, on chalky precipices in the Cverna 

 valley, and Mount Domoglet, as well as on the whole group of rocks along the 

 Danube. Height 8ft. to 10ft. Introduced in 1597. Flowers purple 

 or white ; May. Fruit brown ; ripe in September. 



Varieties. 



"ife S. v. 1 ccerulea Clus. Hist. i. p. 56 , Krause t. 26., and our fig. 1238. 



Flowers blue. There is a subvariety with the leaves imperfectly 



variegated. 



3k S. v. 2 \ioldcea Curt. Bot. Mag. t. 183., and our 

 fig. 1237. Flowers purple. The Scotch Lilac, so 



culled, because it was first recorded in Sutherland's 



Catalogue of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. 

 3fe S. v. 3 alba. Flowers white. This variety flowers 



earliest. 

 & S. v. 4 alba major Lodd. Cat. ed. 1836. Flowers 



larger than those of the previous variety. 

 & S. v, 5 alba plena. S. plena Lod. Cat. Flowers double. 

 Sfe S v. 6 rubra Lodd. Cat. Flowers red 

 S. v. 7 rubra major Lodd. Cat. ed. 1836, the Lilas 



de Marly of the French gardeners, has flowers 



larger than the parent variety. 1237. s. v. ioiacea. 



Other Varieties. A number of plants have been raised from seed bv 

 Mr. Williams of Pitmaston, of which there are six sorts, tolerably distinct, 

 in the Horticultural Society's Garden. The French nurserymen are also 

 in possession of some new seedlings ; but none of all that we have ob- 

 served are so well deserving of culture as the common blue, the violet, the 

 red, and the white. 



The common lilac grows to the height of 20 ft. and upwards in good free 

 soil; and, though it naturally sends up abundance of suckers in every 

 direction, so as to form a dense mass of stems, yet, when these are cleared 

 away as they appear, and only one stem left, it 

 may be trained to form a very handsome small tree, 

 beautiful when in leaf, and preeminently so when 

 in flower. The rate of growth is considerable, 

 varying, according to the soil and situation, from 

 18 in. to 3 ft. in a year, for the first three or four 

 years. The duration is not jreat; probably between 

 twenty and thirty years in rich soils, and between 

 forty and fifty in such as are dry and comparatively 

 poor. Plants which are never allowed to produce 

 suckers of any size, and in which the bunches of 

 flowers have been thinned out, ripen seeds ; and 

 these, according to Miller, produced plants which 

 are true to their varieties. In some parts of Britain, 

 and various parts of Germany, it is mixed with 

 other shrubs, or planted alone, to form garden 

 hedges ; and, as a proof of its hardiness, we may 

 mention that there are hedges of it by the road- 

 sides, in the neighbourhood of Ulm and Augsburg, 

 in the elevated, and consequently cold, region of 

 Bavaria. Mixed with sweet briars, sloe thorns, scarlet thorns, Guelder rose 



