Syringa, or Mock Orange 



my judgment they are too sweet, troubling and molest- 

 ing the head in very strange manner. I once gathered 

 the floures and layed them in my chamber window, 

 which smelled more strongly after they had lien 

 together a few houres with such an unacquainted savor 

 that they awakened me out of sleepe, so that I could 

 not rest till I had cast them out of my chamber." 

 Parkinson, too, in the seventeenth century, describing 

 the Syringa in his " Earthly Paradise," speaks of the 

 single White Pipe Tree as "of a strong full or heady 

 sent, not pleasing to a great many, by reason of the 

 strange quicknesse of the sent." 



This scent so closely resembles that of the orange 



" The sweet Syringa yielding but in scent 



To the rich orange." 



(Mason, " English Garden ") 



that a common name of the shrub is " Mock Orange." 

 Some species, however, lack it; for instance, the Phila- 

 delphus grandiflora, which partly on this account, but 

 chiefly because both its flowers and its leaves are built 

 on larger lines than the common species, is now frequently 

 planted in gardens. This species is a native of North 

 America, and was first brought to England a century 

 ago. Another North American species, P. gordonianus, 

 appeals, however, more to the lovers of the familiar 

 Syringa type, for while the flowers are almost as large 

 as in the preceding species, P. gordonianus possesses 



