Privet

Privet (Ligustrum), a genus of plants of the natural order Oleaceæ, containing a number of species of shrubs and small trees with opposite leaves, which are simple and entire at the margin; the flowers small, white, and in terminal panicles; the calyx slightly 4-toothed; the corolla funnel-shaped and 4-cleft; the stamens two, projecting beyond the tube of the corolla; the berries 2-celled. Common Privet (L. vulgare) is a shrub growing in bushy places and about the borders of woods in the middle and south of Europe, and in some parts of Britain, now also naturalised in some parts of North America. It has half-evergreen, smooth, lanceolate leaves; and berries about the size of peas, black, rarely white, yellow, or green. The flowers have a strong and sweetish smell; the leaves are mildly astringent, and were formerly used in medicine. The berries, which hang on the shrub during winter, have a disagreeable taste, but serve as food for many kinds of birds; they are used for dyeing red, and, with various additions, green, blue, and black. A rose-coloured pigment obtained from them is used for colouring maps. The wood is hard, and is used by turners, and by shoemakers for making wooden pegs. Privet, although not spiny, is much used for hedges, often mixed with some spiny shrub, or with beech. It bears clipping well, and grows well in the smoke of towns, also under the shade of trees. A number of species of privet are natives of different parts of the East, and some of them are now to be seen in shrubberies in Britain. Most kinds of privet grow readily from cuttings, but some of the more ornamental kinds are increased by grafting them upon the common or other more vigorous species. It has now been proved that the shrub the white wax insect of China deposits the wax on is L. lucidum. See WAX INSECT.