XLVIII. OLEACE^: SYRI NGA. 



635 



It requires to be grown in moist soil, either sand}' peat or tandy 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^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 ] 837-8, as a standard, 

 in the Horticultural Society's Garden, and 

 0. americana L. (fig. 1236.) has lived 

 asainst a wall at Messrs. Loddiges. This 

 tree is the devil-wood of the Americans, a 

 native of the southern states, as far north 

 i 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 

 i years. The flowers are very small, of a 

 ipale yellow, and strongly scented ; a])pear- 

 ins about the end of Aoril. Tiie fruit is 

 jround, about twice the size of the common 

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

 iipproaching to blue. It ripens in America 

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

 iforming a fine contrast to the foliage. 

 i 



1236. OMea americkna. 



Sect. 11. SYRfNGEJE. 



Genus IV. 



k 



I SYRI'NGA L. The Lilac. Lin. Syst. Diandria Monogynla. 



h-ntification. Lin. Gen., No. 22. ; Don's Mill., 4. p. .'51. 



I'umymes. Lilac Tourn. Inst. t. 372., Juss. Gen. p. 105. ; Lilas, Fr. ; Flieder, Ger. ; Lilaco, Ital. 

 frivation. 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 

 ipplied both to the Philadelphus and the Syringa. Lilac is from lilac, or Ulag, the Persian word 

 'or a flower. 



fH. Char., Sfc. Cali/x small, 4-toothed. Coro/la funnel-shaped, with a 4- 

 iparted limb. Stamens 2, enclosed. Stigvia trifid. Capsule ovate, com- 

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

 idissepiment in the middle. {Don's Mill.) 



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

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

 br low trees ; natives of Europe or Asia. 



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

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

 I'ipring. The natural mode of propagating is by suckers, which all the 

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

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



