EPIG.EA — MATTHIOLA. 511 



C. Oleifera. (Abel, Voyage to China, p. 174, with a figure ; Bot. 

 Keg., 492 ; Bot. Cab., 1065). This plant very much resembles the 

 two preceding species. It is a shrub of 6 to 8 feet in height, native 

 of China. Leaves elliptic-oblong, acute, serrated, coriaceous, 

 shininc^. The flowers are solitarv, very numerous, white and frao-- 

 rant. Calyces silky, deciduous. Petals 5 to 6, 2-lobed. The 

 Chinese extract an oil from the seed by pressure, which is in very 

 general use in tlie domestic economy of China. The seeds are 

 white ; to obtain the oil, they are reduced to a coarse powder 

 which is boiled and pressed. An oil is also extracted in the same 

 manner from the seeds of C. Driqnfera, Lour., Coch., ii., p. 499 ; 

 this oil has a pleasant odour, and does not easily become rancid ; it 

 is used to anoint the hair, and for various medical purposes. 



Epigaea. 



Epigcea. This name, derived from the Greek words eiri, upon, 

 and ^aia, the earth, is sufficiently expressive of the mode of growth 

 or trailing liabit of this genus of Ericaccce. The genus is character- 

 ised by having three leaflets on the outside of the 5-parted calyx ; 

 and by the corolla being salver-shaped, 5 -cleft, with its tube hairy 

 on the inside. One of the species, E. repcns (Lin. spec, 565), is a 

 beautiful procumbent shrub, native of Xorth America, from Canada 

 to Carolina, and is found on shady rocks and in stony woods, and 

 on the sides of hills generally about the roots of pines. It has 

 long been known in Europe, in cultivation, as an ornamental shrub 

 and is very much admired for its very fragrant flowers, usually 

 white, with a reddish tinge, and forming in dense, axillary and 

 and terminal racemes. Bot. Eep., 102 : Lam., 111., t. 367, f. 1 ; 

 Bot. Cab., 160; Plukenett, Almagistum Botanicum, t. 107, f. 1. 

 This species will thrive only in peat soil and in sliady situations- 

 It is propagated by layers, or by separating the rooted shoots : or 

 by cuttings, which root readily in sand, with a hand-glass over 

 them. The species E. cordifolia, Swartz, Prod., p. 73, and Swartz, 

 rior. Ind. Occ, ii., p. 842, is a native of Guadaloupe and Cayenne. 

 Its leaves are cordate, roundish, stiff, hispid, serrated and convex. 



Matthiola. 



Matthiola. This name was given in honour of Peter Andrew 

 Matthiola (an Italian physician who died in 1577), to a genus of 



