414 HORTUS MORTOLENSIS 
15-25 mm. distant, slightly elevated, small, roundish or obovate. 
Spicules yellow, short, not numerous. Spines generally two, 
white, with yellowish points and base, terete, the lower deflexed 
shorter, the upper one spreading (2-) 3 cm. long. Flowers 
numerous from the top of the joint, 74 em. long and 64 em. broad, 
ovary obovate turbinate, 34-4 cm. long and 22 mm. broad, areoles 
somewhat elevated, prickly ; petals obovate lanceolate, acute and 
aristate, orange-yellow, with a more reddish-brown hue along the 
midrib on the back and as well on the shorter obtuse outer petals; 
stamens yellow, style yellowish, thickened or clavate above the 
base, stigmata (6-) 7, dirty rose coloured. 
Besides the species enumerated in the Catalogue, a great num- 
ber of plants are grown which have not yet been identified.* 
OREOPANAX. 
A genus comprising very ornamental shrubs or small trees 
from Central America, which are quite at home at La Mortola. 
About eighty species have been named, but in most cases only 
insufficiently described. In the absence of a good monograph, 
and without the aid of a large herbarium of native specimens, 
the genus is difficult to deal with. Prof. Harms in N. Pf. lL. ¢. 
divides the species into three sections according to the shape of 
the leaves—Digitate, Lobate, and Simplicifolia. 
Of the last section we grow O. capitatuwm, but have only 
a female specimen, though male specimens are not uncommon in 
other gardens of this neighbourhood. The male plant has the 
leaves a little more elongated and more rounded at the base, 
whilst in the female they are more ovate and more attenuated at 
the base. But the shape of the leaves varies to some extent with 
the age of the plant. 
Of the second series we grow O. dactylifolius, which forms a 
very fine tree. It was bought by Mr. Daniel Hanbury, in August, 
1872, from M. Van Geert, of Ghent. Of this we have both sexes. 
The female plant has larger leaves with more divided lobes. I 
keep the name of O. Epremesnilianus for the plant, which I 
found here under this name, though it is quite different from 
the one figured by G. Nicholson (Dict. 522, fig. 772). It is 
a fine, small tree with 5-lobed leaves, one or two of the middle 
lobes being generally free nearly to the base, whilst the two lower 
lobes have each a small outer lobe. In young specimens the 
leaves are larger and 7-lobed, but agree in shape with those of 
the adult plant. Count Eprémesnil, after whom the plant is 
named, was one of the first to found a garden on the Riviera, 
the Villa Les Cocotiers, at Golfe-Juan, now transformed by his 
heirs into a horticultural establishment. O. palmatus, another 
species of this section, occurs in gardens under the name of Aralia 
* For further notes on Opuntias grown at La Mortola, see Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, 1902, ii. 89-93, with figs. 32-42; 1904, i. 34, figs. 14-16; Engler’s 
Botanische Jahrbiicher xxxvi. pp. 443-457, and various notes in the Monats- 
schrift fir Kakteenkunde. 
——E————es TCO 
Dette Bis se i 
