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Lilac. 
(LOVE’S FIRST EMOTIONS). 
T HIS attractive and yet unobtrusive flower is well worthy 
of being selected to emblemise love's first emotions. 
Bursting into a profusion of fragrant bouquet-shaped blossoms 
just at that delightful season of the year when all nature, 
aroused from its long wintry slumber, decks itself with smiles 
and blushes, the Lilac could scarcely escape being chosen 
by the observant eyes of poet and lover as a symbol of those 
indescribable feelings of joy which bloom into being when 
“ Love’s young dream ” first bashfully manifests itself. 
It is alleged that when Van Spaendoul, the celebrated Dutch 
flower painter, was shown a group of lilacs, he flung down his 
pencil, as if acknowledging his inability to portray a produc¬ 
tion in every respect so harmonious and unapproachable. 
Of the three varieties of this shrub, the blue, the violet, and 
the white have been thus prettily described : “Nature seems 
to have delighted in making a finished production of each of 
their delicate clusters, massive in themselves, and yet asto¬ 
nishing by their variety and beauty. The gradation of their 
tints, from the first purplish bud to the blanching flower, is 
the smallest fascination of their charming blossoms, round 
which the rainbow seems to revel and to dissolve into a hun¬ 
dred shades and colours, which, commingling in the general 
tone and hue, produce a happy harmony that might well 
baffle the painter and confound the observer.” 
Lilac, or lilag —a Persian word signifying “flower”—-is sup¬ 
posed to have been introduced into Europe from Persia early 
in the sixteenth century by Busbeck, a German traveller. 
In 1597, Gerarde says, “ I have them growing in my garden 
in great plenty.” 
Mrs. Sigourney, in allusion to its native land, addresses it: 
