636 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



1. S. vuLGA^Ris L. The common Lilac. 



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



Synonijmcs. Lilac vulg&ris Gierln ; Pipe Privet, or Pipe Tree ; Lilaa commun, Fr. ; gemeinei 



Flieder, G.fr. ; Lilla, or Lilac turco, Ital- 

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



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

 ciduous shrub. Persia and Hungary, on chalky precipices in the (^vernal 

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

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

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



Varieties. 

 * S. V. 



p. 3t), Krause t. ae., and our _;%. 1238, 

 There is a subvariety with the leaves imperfecti}/ 



a 





1 ccBTulea Clus. Hist. i. p. 56 , Krause t. 26., and 



Flowers blue, 



variegated. 

 S. V. 2 \ioldcea Curt. Bot. Mag. t. 18.3., and our 



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



called, because it was first recorded in Sutherland's 



Catalogue of the Edinbtirgh Botanic Garden. 

 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. 5. plena Lod. Cat. Flowers double. 

 S ;. 6 riibra Lodd. Cat. Flowers red 



S. V. 7 rubra major Lodd. Cat. ed. 1836, 

 de Marly of the French gai'deners, has 

 larger than the parent variety. 



as 



the Lil 

 flowers 



S. T. tfioldcea. 



Oihei- Varieties. A number of plants have been raised from seed b} 

 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, th( 

 red, and the white. 



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

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

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

 away as they appear, and only one stfem 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^reat; 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 Ulin and Augsburg, 

 in the elevated, and consequently cold, region of 

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



1238. 



