Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



The Lilac undoubtedly stands in the very forefront 

 of our beautiful flowering shrubs, and its value for us 

 is increased by the fact that it will thrive with little 

 attention or regard to soil It is, however, too often 

 maltreated by being half starved for air and sunlight 

 in some overcrowded shrubbery, whereas it responds 

 wonderfully to generous treatment. It will grow to the 

 height of a small tree say twenty feet but normally 

 it has the true shrub characteristic of branching from 

 the roots and forming several primary stems, though 

 it is often pruned and trained so as to produce a small 

 single trunk. Its foliage is full and of a very fresh 

 green colour; the individual leaves are heart-shaped. 

 In late May days there appear at the ends of the 

 branches, and usually in pairs, rounded pyramids " of 

 an exceeding faire blew colour compact of many small 

 floures in the form of a bunch of grapes " (Gerard's 

 description). In an ordinary Lilac these panicles are 

 six to eight inches long, but they may be half as long 

 again in specially cultivated varieties. An average 

 cluster contains some one hundred and thirty flowers 

 arranged on sub-branches radiating from a long central 

 axis. In the bud stage the hue is dark purple; it 

 becomes appreciably lighter as the flowers open. 



There are various points of interest in the flower. 

 Out of an extremely small calyx the long thin petal 



tube rises, bulging a little two-thirds of the way up. 



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