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Common Lilac
Common Lilac
(Syringa vulgaris LINN.)

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Lilacs (White and Mauve)

Botanical: Syringa vulgaris
Family: N.O. Oleaceae

---Synonym---Common Lilac.
---Parts Used---Leaves, fruit.
---Habitat---Persia, mountainous regions of Eastern Europe.



---Description---A shrub or small tree up to 20 feet in height producing a crowd of erect stems, occasionally a trunk over 2 feet in girth, clothed with spirally arranged flakes of bark. Shoots and leaves smooth, leaves heart-shape or ovate, 2 to 6 inches long, from 3/4 to almost as much wide near the base; stalk 3/4 to 1 1/2 inch long. Panicles pyramidal, 6 to 8 inches long, usually in pairs from the terminal buds, flowers fragrant; corolla tube 1/3 to 1/2 inch long; lobes concave; calyx and flower-stalks have gland tipped down; seed vessels smooth, 5/8 inch long, beaked.

Introduced to Britain during time of Henry VIII, mentioned in an inventory taken at Norwich by Oliver Cromwell.

Syringa Baccifera is a synonym of Mitchella repens or Partridge Berry and must not be confused with S. vulgaris.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Used as a vermifuge in America and as a tonic anti-periodic and febrifuge; may be used as a substitute for aloes and in the treatment of malaria.

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Bear in mind "A Modern Herbal" was written with the conventional wisdom of the early 1900's. This should be taken into account as some of the information may now be considered inaccurate, or not in accordance with modern medicine.

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