NOTES 407 
Breisgau. N. tomentosa is also arborescent, but its flowers are less 
showy. N. glauca is subspontaneous along the Riviera, coming 
up everywhere, especially on walls. In good soil it forms almost 
a small tree. 
Nouina. 
Some species of this are now included under Beaucarnea. 
N. erumpens is stemless, whilst N. longifolia and N. Beldingi 
form a stem 2-5 m. high, when full-grown. 
Ocimum. 
O. viride was received from Sir William Thiselton-Dyer in 
1902. It was recommended to him as a plant useful against 
mosquitoes. It grew well for several years, but was finally lost. 
OcoTEA. 
O. fetens, the “Til” of the Canaries, is a large tree with fruits 
exactly resembling acorns. According to a letter from Dr. George 
Perez, of Orotava, to whom we are greatly indebted for seeds of 
this and many other Canarian plants, this is the tree an enormous 
specimen of which grew in the little Island of Hierro and perished 
in a storm three centuries ago. This tree was said to have had 
the wonderful property of condensing the mountain mist, thus 
supplying the inhabitants of Hierro with drinking water, which 
was gathered in two small tanks under the tree, as it trickled 
down from the leaves.* 
There are fine trees at Antibes and Golfe-Juan. The tree has 
a very acid juice, and the wood a bad smell. 
ODONTOSPERMUM. 
O. maritimwm has been established on the rocks near the sea. 
O. sericewm, with silky white leaves and large yellow flowers, is 
a low shrub of great beauty, called the ‘Canarian edelweiss”’ by 
Dr. Christ. 
OLEA. 
Many of the olive trees (O. ewropea), which were cultivated 
on the property when Sir Thomas Hanbury bought it, have been 
spared. Some of them must be more than four hundred years 
oid.+ All species of Olea are of very slow growth. 
ONCIDIUM. 
Several species of this genus grow perfectly well in the open, 
epiphytically on trees. O. bifoliwm has been grown since April, 
1903, flowering abundantly every summer. It was given to us by 
* Pithecolobium saman Benth. is popularly known as the ‘‘ rain tree” of 
South America; it is infested by a suctorial insect, and produces a liquid, 
which often falls copiously to the ground. (Medley Wood in Agricult. Journ. 
of S. Afr. ii. p. 713.) 
t For the history of the Olive and the extraction of the oil see Flickiger 
_& Hanbury, Pharmacographia, pp. 374-377, second edition, pp. 417-421, and 
Strasburger, Rambles on the Riviera. . 
