Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



continually necessary, when one uses the term Syringa 

 in company at all botanical, to explain carefully 

 whether one is speaking from the homely or the 

 scientific point of view. 



A pretty legend is woven around the Syringa and 

 its connection with pipes. Syrinx was a nymph in 

 Arcady with whom the god Pan fell in love. To 

 avoid him she fled to the river, and prayed the water 

 nymphs to help her. So they changed her into a 

 reed. Therefore, as Pan could not have her for his 

 earthly love, "Thou," he said, 



"At least shall be the consort of my mind, 

 And often, often to my lips be joined; 

 He formed the reeds, proportioned as they are, 

 Unequal in their length and waxed with care, 



They still retain the name of his ungrateful fair." 



(Dry den.) 



Soil and Cultivation. The Syringas should be 

 grown in a good garden soil, and in a position open to 

 a fair amount of sunshine if they are to produce their 

 fragrant flowers in abundance. Pruning should con- 

 sist of cutting out any old wood that has already 

 flowered. The blossom of each spring is borne on the 

 shoots of the previous year ; therefore the cutting off of 

 the season's shoots in the autumn means no flowers 

 the next spring. They are best propagated by taking 

 cuttings of young wood and striking these in a cold 



frame. 



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