APRIL. 61 



as •when Cromwell caused an inventory to be 

 made of the plants which grew in the garden 

 of the palace of Nonsuch, there were enume- 

 rated " six lilackes, trees which have no fruit, 

 but only a pleasant smell." Gerarde, in 1597, 

 says of the white and blue lilacs, " I have 

 them in my garden in great plenty." Our 

 common English name is merely a corruption 

 of that by which this shrub is usually called 

 in its native Persia, where it is known as the 

 Ulag, which word signifies a flower. The 

 French, too, term it le lilas. There are several 

 common varieties of this species, as the blue 

 lilac, {Syringa v. ccerulea) and the purple lilac, 

 {Syringa v. violacea) called the Scotch lilac ; and 

 as beautiful as either are the large thick 

 clusters of the white lilac, now contrasting 

 Avith the darker-coloured species, and wdiich 

 unfolds its fair flowers a week or two earlier 

 than even its deeper-tinted companion. There 

 are also two varieties with reddish purple 

 flowers, called by the French gardeners, le lilas 

 de Marly. Cowper had noticed its many hues. 



" Various in array, now white 

 Now sanguine, and lier beauteous head now set 

 With purple spikes pyramidal ; as if 

 Studious of ornament, yet unresolved 

 Which hues she most approved, she chose them all." 



Scarcely less frequent in our gardens, and 

 easily distinguished from the common kind, is 

 that species termed the Persian hlac, (Syringa 

 Persica. ) It is on the hills and plains of the 

 lovely Persia still more general than is the 

 larirer kind. Its leaves are long and pointed, 



