Syringa, or Mock Orange 



The leaves are always simple and in pairs, and in 

 the Common Syringa, at least, they taste when bitten 

 like cucumber. 



x The woody stems are distinguished by a grey bark 

 and a considerable amount of pith. The lilacs have 

 also the same character, and hence in olden days the 

 two shrubs were classed together and called "Syringa" 

 (from the Greek), " that is to say a Pipe, because the 

 stalkes and branches thereof, when the pith is taken 

 out, are hollow like a Pipe," as Gerard carefully 

 explains. The Mock Orange was known as the White 

 Pipe or the Pipe Privet, and the lilac as the " Blew 

 Pipe," from the colour of the flowers. But when 

 scientific botany took the matter in hand it was 

 necessary to separate the two groups, as they really 

 belong to two completely different families, hence 

 Linnaeus kept the lilacs or the "Blew Pipes" under 

 the heading Syringa (family Oleacecd), and put the 

 White Pipes into another family Saxifragacecz under 

 the generic name Philadelphus. (The Athenians called 

 some plant Philadelphus, but its exact identity is lost.) 

 The result of this simple operation has been confusion 

 ever since, for popular feeling insists on calling the 

 Philadelphus by the familiar term "Syringa," and 

 will not adhere to the suggested substitute of " Mock 

 Orange," while the botanists retain the term Syringa 

 as their nomenclature for the lilacs. Therefore it is 



