0365 



LILAC 



Family: JASMINE FAMILY [Translator's note: now in Oleaceae] 

 Reproductive system: DlANDRY, MONOGYNY. 



Of all the shrubs naturalized in France, the lilacs are beyond doubt the most 

 exceptional for the elegance, early blooming, and sweet fragrance of their bouquets of 

 flowers. Moreover, they're so widely cultivated in our parks and gardens that few people 

 suspect that they originated in the Orient, and that they came from the vicinity of ancient 

 Babylon. 



The common lilac, Lilac vulgaris, Lam., Syringa vulgaris, Linn., is a shrub about 

 three or four meters high. The leaves are petiolate, opposite, entire, heart-shaped, pointed, 

 and smooth. The flowers are a beautiful purple, sometimes white, and form clusters at the 

 tips of the branches. The calyx is a single unit with four teeth. The corolla is 

 monopetalous; it's top is indented into four slightly concave sections. The two stamens 

 are concealed inside the tube. The ovary is free. It turns into a flattened oval capsule with 

 two compartments, two valves, and two seeds. 



FLOWERS: in May. 



RANGE: the Orient. The lilac was brought from Constantinople in 1562 by 

 Busbeck, ambassador of Ferdinand I, King of the Romans. [Translator's note: Augier 

 Ghislain de Busbeck, 1522-1592, was the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to the 

 court of the Sultan in Constantinople from 1554 to 1592. He introduced the lilac and the 

 tulip into Europe from the Orient. Ferdinand I, a Habsburg Emperor of the Holy Roman 

 Empire who ruled Austria, Bohemia, and part of Germany, held the title King of the 

 Romans prior to his coronation as Emperor.] 



NOMENCLATURE. According to Plukenet, [Translator's note: Leonard Plukenet, 

 1642-1706, was Royal Professor of Botany and gardener to Queen Mary II at Hampton 

 Court] lilac comes from agem/i/ag, its name in Persian. German, syrene, syringsbaum, 

 lilak. English, the common lilac. Spanish, //7a. Russian, serik. Hungarian, borostyan. 



The hybrid lilac, Lilac chinensis, Willd., [Translator's note: now designated 

 Syringa x chinensis] is a shrub that first was cultivated in the botanical garden at Rouen. 

 It was grown by M. Varin, the director of the garden, from the seeds of a variety of 

 Persian lilac. Its leaves are much smaller than those of the common lilac, and the 

 branches are slender like those of the Persian lilac. Its flower clusters are more elongated 

 than the latter's. 



