THE PRIVET. 



LiGUSTRUM VULGARE. 



Natural Order — Oleace^. 

 Class — DiANDRiA. Order — Monogynia. 



The Privet would scarcely be considered en- 

 titled to a place among Forest Trees, were it not 

 for its being frequently associated in hedges with 

 the Hawthorn, a tree which requires no apologist. 

 Being, too, what may be called a half-evergreen, 

 it possesses a sort of claim on our notice. In 

 its usual state it is a thick bush, with numerous 

 wiry stems, and smooth, somewhat fleshy, leaves, 

 shaped like those of the myrtle. In June it bears 

 at the extremities of the shoots pyramidal clus- 

 ters of white flowers, which have a sweet but 

 sickly odour, and soon change to a reddish-brown 

 colour. The berries, which ripen in profusion, 

 are black, and remain attached to the tree until 

 almost every other kind of berry has disappeared, 

 when, as we may infer from their being left so 

 long untouched, they afi'ord an unsavoury ban- 

 quet to hungry birds. In sheltered situations, 

 the leaves remain attached to the plant during all 

 the winter, but where the tree is much exposed, 

 it is stripped, at the fall of the year, of everything 

 but its clusters of dark fruit, which are sometimes 

 so numerous as to be very conspicuous. 



The Privet is commonly employed, either 

 alone, or in conjunction with the Hawthorn, in 



