LILAC. 45 



mistresses when they quit them ; but in this 

 climate, where the charm of the fair is as 

 powerful as this flower is agreeable, the swain 

 is kept in constant fear of receiving the lilac. 



However ungallant the Persian beaux may 

 be in giving the lilac, they are not deficient 

 in complimenting the fair in their language, 

 as their expression for a fine woman and a 

 beautiful flower is the same. Lilac, or lilag, 

 is a Persian word, which simply signifies a 

 flower, but which Europe has given to the 

 shrub it has taken from the ancient Elamites; 

 and from the flower we have given name to 

 one of our most delicate compound colours. 



That a plant of the tropical climes should 

 be so hardy as to stand the severest winters 

 of the greater part of Europe is admirable in 

 the lilac. Its easy propagation, and speedy 

 growth, are no less conspicuous than its beauty, 

 and which have contributed to its rapid dis- 

 tribution throughout not only the temperate 

 but even some of the colder parts of Europe ; 

 for it has naturalized itself in Scotland and in 

 the mountains of Switzerland, and it is now 

 found in the forests of Germany, although it 

 was unknown in this quarter of the globe be- 

 fore the year 1562, when Angerius de Busbeke 

 obtained it from the East, and transported it 

 from Constantinople to Vienna, whence he 



