Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



who, it must be allowed, do their best to hide their 

 relationship to their ugly cousin. Regretfully I feel 

 bound to quote Tennyson : 



' A skin 

 As clean and white as privet when it flowers.' 



Martyn endeavoured to identify our plant with the 

 great bindweed (Convolvulus sepium), whose large 

 white and bell-shaped flowers adorn our hedges, and 

 whose throttling stems are sometimes a pest in 

 gardens. But this plant appears in Pliny under the 

 name of convolvulus together with a synonymous 

 worm or caterpillar, and it seems clear that Ligus- 

 trum was a shrub. It is a pity, for the flowers of 

 the bindweed are much of a size with those of the 

 red and white lilies, and, if ' hyacinthus ' or ' vac- 

 cinium ' be the red lily, Virgil's contrast is better 

 than one between privet and martagons or corn-flags 

 or aught else. 



Flower of privet, June. 

 Italian name, Ligustro. 



Lilium. 



' alba lilia' (Ge. iv. 130; Ae. xii. 69). 



' Candida lilia ' (Ae. vi. 709). 



' Ac-rentes ferulas et grandia lilia ' (Ec. x. 25). 



Lilium candidum, which some call St. Joseph's 

 lily, is equally conspicuous in Italian paintings and 

 in English cottage gardens, though of late a 

 scoundrel fungus has done it much harm. It occurs 

 sparingly in Italy, but may well have been more 



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