Persian lilac

English

Noun

Persian lilac (plural Persian lilacs)

1. Syringa × persica, a shrub in the olive family (Oleaceae)
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 285–286:

     But in the garden was life in all its glad and bright hues: the early roses and the late violets opened their urns, exhaling in perfume the drops they caught, till every breath was pleasure; the laburnums, those prodigals of fleeting wealth, were covered with gold; and the Persian lilacs waved graceful as the Circassian maidens, to whom they are so often compared in eastern song.

2. Melia azedarach, a tree in the mahogany family (Meliaceae)