152 Old Time Gardens 



Lilacs, and occasionally a white one ; and as a rarity 

 the graceful, but sometimes rather spindling, Persian 

 Lilacs, known since 1650 in gardens, and shown on 

 page 151. How the old gardens would have stared 

 at the new double Lilacs, which have luxuriant 

 plumes of bloom twenty inches long. 



The "pensile Lilac" has been sung by many poets ; 

 but the spirit of the flower has been best portrayed 

 in verse by Elizabeth Akers. I can quote but a 

 single stanza from so many beautiful ones. 



" How fair it stood, with purple tassels hung, 



Their hue more tender than the tint of Tyre ; 

 How musical amid their fragrance rung 



The bee's bassoon, keynote of spring's glad choir ! 



languorous Lilac ! still in time's despite 



1 see thy plumy branches all alight 



With new-born butterflies which loved to stay 

 And bask and banquet in the temperate ray 



Of springtime, ere the torrid heats should be : 



For these dear memories, though the world grow gray, 



I sing thy sweetness, lovely Lilac tree ! " 



Another poet of the Lilac is Walt Whitman. 

 He tells his delight in " the Lilac tall and its blos- 

 soms of mastering odor." He sings: "with the 

 birds a warble of joy for Lilac-time." That noble, 

 heroic dirge, the Burial Hymn of Lincoln, begins : 



"When Lilacs last in the dooryard bloom 'd." 



The poet stood under the blossoming Lilacs when 

 he learned of the death of Lincoln, and the scent 

 and sight of the flowers ever bore the sad associa- 

 tion. In this poem is a vivid description of 



