PRIVET(Ligustrum), the vernacular name of a genus of Oleaceae. There are several species, all of them shrubs or low trees with evergreen or nearly evergreen opposite entire leaves, and dense cymes 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, which makes good hedges in cases where no great powers of resistance to the inroads of cattle, &c., are required. L. ovalifolium thrives by the seaside and even in towns, and is thus a valuable all but evergreen shrub. L. lucidum is taller and handsomer. There are several other species, mostly natives of China and Japan, some of which when attacked by a species of scale-insect (Coccus) yield a waxy substance.