ONOBRYCHIS. 301 OPUNTIA. 
as the roots will be found to adhere Ono'nis. — Legumindse. — The 
strongly to the sides of the old pot,| Rest Harrow. Little herbaceous 
To 
and thus are easily broken. 
prevent this, the plants should be | 
shifted as seldom as possible ; and | 
when shifting is inevitable, they | 
should be kept without water for | 
several days beforehand, so that | 
the plants may be in a flagging and 
less power of adhesion. 
Oncidiums should be regularly wa- 
tered, but they should not often be 
syringed overhead, as they are very 
apt to rot if any water should lodge 
the heart of the plant. 
The commonest kinds of Onci- 
dium are, O. flexudsum, a very | 
beautiful species, with a long, much- 
branched particle of bright yellow 
flowers; QO. crispum, the flowers of | 
which are of a copper colour, and 
much undulated or curled; O. ai- 
tissimum, with a very long flower- 
yellow flowers spotted with brown ; 
O. luridurt, with a panicle of green- 
ish brown flowers ; and O. papilio, 
the flowers of which are borne sin- 
gly, on long, simple, and naked 
stalks. 
tissimum and O. liridum; and 
there are also some dwarf species, 
such as O. triquétrum and O. rani- 
ferum, the latter having drooping 
racemes of very small flowers. The | 
colours are generally yellow and 
brown, but O. pulchéllum, a very 
beautiful species, has white flowers 
tinged with pink, and O. triquétrum 
has ‘white flowers blotched with 
purple. O. raniferum should be 
grown on a piece of wood hung from 
the rafters; and O. papilio, and 
some of the other species, may be 
treated in the same manner. 
Onosry’cuis. — Legumindse. — 
Saintfoin. Hardy perennial plants, 
some of the species of which are 
pretty, and suitable for rockwork. 
26 
Besides these, there are | 
many species nearly allied to O. al- | 
and shrubby plants, some of which 
are natives of Britain, and which 
have generally yellow or pink flow- 
ers. Most of the kinds should be 
grown in peat, or in very sandy 
Joam; and they are all suitable for 
'reckwork. Some of the kinds from 
feeble state, and their roots have | 
All the. 
the south of Europe are rather ten- 
der; but they will all live in the 
open air, with a very slight protec- 
tion, during hard frosts. 
: - 
Ono'sma. — Boraginee.— Peren- 
nial plants, natives of Europe, gene- 
in the centre, or what gardeners call | 
rally with yellow flowers, of low 
| growth, and suitable for rockwork ; 
they should be grown in sandy 
peat. 
Orvrera Girts.—See Manrr'sta. 
O’purys.—Orchidadcee. — Dwarf 
plants belonging to the terrestrial 
Orchidez, with very curious flowers. 
One of these, O. apifera, looks as 
though a bee were buried in the 
stem, somewhat branched, and with | 
flower; another, O. aranifera, has 
the lip in the form of a spider; and 
in a third, O. muscifera, the whole 
flower resembles a fly. For the 
culture of these plants see O'rcuis. 
Opuntia. — Cactdcee. — The 
Prickly Pear. This is the hardiest 
of all the genera of Cacti, as there 
are some species which will live in 
the open ground in England, with 
only a slight protection from frost 
during winter; and they grow freely 
in the south of Europe. ‘The hardi- 
est kind is Opuntia vulgaris, of 
which there are forests on Mount 
Etna, growing in chinks and crevi- 
ces in the rocks, where there ap- 
pears scarcely soil enough to con- 
tain their roots. ‘They are equally 
abundant in the rocky districts of 
Spain, where they grow so vigor- 
ously, and so apparently in a state 
of nature, that a doubt arisen 
whether they are not natives of 
Spain transported at a very early 
period to South America, instead 
being, as is generally supposed, n 
gt 
