62 GABDEN FLOWERS. 



while those of the common lilac are broad and 

 heart-shaped. Its clusters of flowers are less 

 compact, but blow loosely about in the 

 southerly winds of April, diffusing an odour, 

 delicious in the outer air, but which would 

 render the atmosphere of an apartment faint 

 and sickly. In Persia its delicate lilac flowers 

 are much admired ; and it often mingles with 

 the rose, the narcissus, and the jonquil, in those 

 bouquets which are sent by eastern letters as 

 expressions of sentiment. 



The Persian lilac was, long after its intro- 

 duction into Europe, termed Persian jessamine, 

 and the Italians called it German jessamine. 

 This plant is sometimes grown in pots, and 

 made to flower at Christmas, but by this process 

 it quite loses its fragrance. 



There are, in our garden, two or three 

 varieties of the Persian, besides some other 

 species of lilac. The Chinese lilac, with purple 

 flowers, is, as its name implies, a plant growing 

 wild in the celestial empire : while another 

 species is found wild on the mountains about 

 Pekin ; and a third smiles in beauty in 

 Kumaon, near the lofty mountains of the 

 Himalaya. These AviU, probably, some day 

 grace our English gardens, as they seem likely 

 to bear our climate. 



