44 SYLVA FL0R1FE11A. 



greater harmony than is afforded in the happy 

 gradation of colour from the purple bud to 

 the almost colourless flower of these charming 

 groups, around which the light plays and dis- 

 solves itself into a thousand shades, which all 

 blending in the same tint, form that incom- 

 parable combination that rivets the attention 

 of the most indifferent observer, and throws 

 the painter into despair. We are told Spaen- 

 donk himself dropped his pencil before a 

 bunch of lilac; for Flora seems to have de- 

 signed the thyrsi of the lilac to please the 

 artist by their delicacy, and to tantalize him 

 by their varying tints. 



The harmony of colours is so complete in 

 the lilac, that when we place a bunch of the 

 white flowers on a branch of the purple va- 

 riety, an offensive harshness is instantly ob- 

 served ; nor will the more delicate green of 

 the first kind assimilate with the purple tyrus 

 of the latter, without displeasing the eye. 



In the Floral language of the East, where 

 this flowering shrub is a native, and where 

 spontaneously 



" the lilac hangs to view 



Its bursting gems in clusters blue," 



they have made it an emblem of the forsaken, 

 because it is the flower that lovers offer their 



10 



