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Bible Encyclopedias
Privet
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or in botany, the vernacular name of Ligustrum, l a genus of Oleaceae, containing about thirty-five species, natives 1 Other vernacular names for the common species are prim, primprint, primwort and primrose.
'of temperate and tropical Asia; only the common privet is a native of Europe. They are shrubs or low trees with evergreen or nearly evergreen opposite entire leaves, and dense clusters of small, white, tubular four-parted flowers, enclosing two stamens and succeeded by small, globular, usually black berries, each with a single pendulous seed. The best-known species is the common European privet, L. vulgare, which makes good hedges; L. ovalifolium (a native of Japan) thrives by the seaside and even in towns; there is a yellow-leaved variety (var. variegatum), the leaves becoming white as they get older. L. lucidum (China) is taller and handsomer. There are numerous varieties of L. vulgare in cultivation; var. buxifolium has broader and more persistent leaves; var. fructu-luteum has bright yellow fruit; var. pendulum has long weeping branches; and var. variegatum has the leaves variegated with bright yellow. L. japonicum, L. Massalongianum (Khassia Hills) and other species are also cultivated. Mock-privet is Phillyrea, a member of the same order and a small genus of ornamental hardy evergreen shrubs, natives of the Mediterranean region and Asia Minor.
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Privet'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/p/privet.html. 1910.
