LILAC

common shrub of order Oleaceoe, flowers characterized by tubular corollas and_ bell-like S$ colors—pink, violet, blue, white. Eng. agitator; imprisoned, 1653-55; afterwards became Quaker. herbaceous, but containing two treelike forms, Dracoena (the dragon tree) and Yucca. The plants are usually perennials, po e ing either a rhizome (Solomon’s seal), corm (autumn crocus), or bulb (tulip), and well-developed leaves. Ruscus and Asparagus are exceptional in having the leaves reduced to scales, in the axils of which the flattened a imilatory branches (cladodes) are bone. The flowers are perfectly trimerous, with six perianth leaves, six stamens, and a triloculap ovary.