S YRI N G A . 
(FRATERNAL LOVE.) 
S YRINGA is a Greek word, signifying “pipe,” and its 
ancient English name was pipe-tree. Its classical appel 
lation is Philadelphia, so called after Ptolemy Philadelphia, 
King of Egypt, who acquired celebrity for the intense affection 
he manifested for his brother : for this reason Syringa was con¬ 
secrated to his memory, and has been adopted as the flori- 
graphical sign of fraternal love. 
The Syringa is a most delicious shrub : the foliage is luxu¬ 
riant, the blossoms beautiful, abundant, and of a creamy white¬ 
ness,starred with a golden centre, and emitting a most fragrant 
perfume. Well might Cowper speak in praise of the “ syringa, 
ivory pure,” and well indeed could Pliny call such blossoms 
“ the joy of plants.” 
Mason, in his “ English Garden,” speaks of this most odori¬ 
ferous plant, but can scarcely be deemed to have awarded it 
its due meed of praise, inserting as he does that uncalled-for 
odious but: 
“ The sweet syringa, yielding but in scent 
To the rich orange, or the woodbine wild, 
That loves to hang on barren boughs remote 
Her wreaths of flowery perfume.” 
Certainly its exquisite loveliness, super-eminent fragrance, 
and profuseness of foliage and flower, deseived moie attention 
from the neglectful poets than this sweet shrub has gained. 
Some botanists have named the lilac “ syringa,. but really 
there is no resemblance between the two. Syringa is a member 
of the beautiful and aromatic myrtle family, whilst the lilac 
belongs to the jasmines. Tasmania is rich in the possession of 
thi« attractive plant, and there is a species growing there called 
the “ myrtle-leaved syringa,” of which the fresh flowering shoots 
were used by Captain Cook s sailors to make a kind of tea 
from ■ they found the infusion sweetly aromatic at first, but in 
a short time it became very bitter. It was considered very 
serviceable, however, in attacks of sea-scurvy. 
