AND GENEEAL HORTICULTUEE. 



281 



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America, a few species of which are natural- 

 ized over the warmer portions of the globe. 

 Many of the species and varieties are amongst 

 the most beautiful and attractive of hard}' 

 plants, their large, showy, fragrant flowers 

 presenting considerable difference in color, 

 some being yellow, others white or purple, 

 and usually opening in the evening. They are 

 all of easy cultivation, readily increased by 

 seeds or division, and are most suitable for 

 the margins of shrubberies, mixed borders, or I 

 similar situations. CE. Fraseri, CE. Missou- 

 riensis (E.biennis.xar. Lamarckiana,(E. riparia, 

 CE. Taraxifolia, and many other sorts, will be 

 found excellent for this purpose, while many 

 of the annual sorts, better known under the 

 familiar name of Godetia, are most attractive 

 in mixed borders, especially if sown or grown 

 in clumps or masses. 



OflBcinalis. Applied to plants which are useful 

 in medicine or the arts. 



Offset. Short branches next the ground which 

 take root. 



Oidium. A name given to a genus of naked- 

 spored moulds, which has obtained consider- 

 able notoriety from its connection with the 

 Vine Mildew, which arises from the attacks of 

 0. Tuckeri. This fungus derived its name 

 from a gardener at Margate, England, who 

 was one of the first to use sulphur as a 

 remedy. There are many different kinds of 

 Oidium, all peculiar to the plants they most 

 frequent, thus Peas, Hops, Turnips, etc., have 

 their special species to contend against. The 

 best known remedy is an application of the 

 flowers of sulphur, or a weak solution of 

 sulphide of potassium. 



Oil of Ben. See Moringa. 



Oil of Bergamot. See Mentha citrcUa. 



Oil of Origanum. See Origanum. 



Oil Palm. See Elceis. 



Oil Plant. Sesamum orientale. 



Okra. See Hibiscus esculentus. 



Oldenla'ndia. Named after H. B. Oldenlandi a 

 Dane, who collected plants at the Cape of Good 

 Hope. An extensive genus of RubiacecB com- 

 prising nearly seventy species of stove and 

 green-house plants, found in tropical countries, 

 principallj' in Asia. O. umbellata, commonly 

 known as Chay-root, yields a red dye, and is 

 largely employed by the dyers of southern 

 India, the plant there being extensively culti- 

 vated. 0. Deppeana is a favorite free-flower- 

 ing green-house plant, with white flowers, 

 almost constantly in bloom. 



Old Maid. Vinca rosea. 



Old Man. Artemisia Abrotanum, Clematis vitalba, 

 and Rosmarinus officinalis. 



Old Man Cactus. See Pilocereus. 



Old Mans Beard. Saxifraga sarmentosa, Til- 

 landsia usneoides, and Geropogon, which see. 



Old "Witch Grass. Panicum capillare. 



Olea. Olive. From elaia, Olive. Nat. Ord. 

 Oleacece. 



Europoea, var. saliva, the tree that produces 

 the Olives and Olive Oil of commerce, is alow- 

 branching evergreen, growing from twenty to 

 thirty feet high. The leaves bear some re- 

 semblance to those of the Willow, only they 

 are softer and more delicate. The flowers are 

 as delicate as the leaves, and are produced in 



OLE 



small axillary bunches, from wood of the 

 former year, and appear from June until 

 August. At first they are of a pale yellow ; 

 but when they expand their four petals, the 

 insides are white, and only the centre of the 

 flower yellow. The matured wood of the Olive 

 is hard and compact, though rather brittle ; 

 its color is reddish, and it takes a fine gloss, 

 on which account the ancients carved it into 

 statues of the gods, and the moderns make it 

 into snuff-boxes, and various trinkets, that 

 find a I'eady sale to travelers in Eastern lands. 

 An observing visitor to the Holy Land from 

 New York says: "There is annually more 

 Olive-wood sold from the Mount of Olives to 

 Pilgrims than ever grew there." The Wild 

 Olive is found indigenous in Syria, Greece, 

 and Africa, and on the lower slopes of the 

 Atlas. The cultivated one grows spon- 

 taneously in many parts of Syria, and is ex- 

 tensively cultivated in the south of France, 

 Italy, and Spain, and has been, from all the 

 accounts we can gather, from the earliest 

 periods of the earth's history. The young 

 Olive bears its fruit at two years old ; in six 

 years it pays the expense of cultivation ; after 

 that period, in good years, the produce is the 

 surest source of wealth to the farmer. A com- 

 mon saying in Italy is, if you wish to leave a 

 lasting inheritance to your children's children, 

 plant an Olive. Besides its use for the pro- 

 duction of oil, the unripe fruit is used as a 

 pickle. For this purpose they are steeped in 

 an alkaline solution, to extract a part of the 

 bitter flavor, they are next washed in pure 

 water, and afterward preserved in salt and 

 water, to which fennel, or some aromatic, is 

 sometimes added. Olive branches have for 

 ages been regarded as eiublems of peace and 

 plenty. The O.fragrans (syn. Osmanthun frag- 

 raiis) is a native of China, and is highly odor- 

 iferous, and on this account is much esteemed 

 by the Chinese, who use the leaves to adulter- 

 ate and flavor tea. It is also a favorite green- 

 house plant. It is readily increased in spring 

 by cuttings of well-ripened wood. O. Ameri- 

 cana, a native species, common from North 

 Carolina to Florida, is an evergreen shrub or 

 small tree, producing axillary racemes or pani- 

 cles of small, white, fragrant flowers, and a 

 bitter, astringent fruit about the size of a pea. 



Olea'ceee. A natural order of trees and shrubs, 

 natives chiefly of North America, Asia, Europe, 

 and New Holland, with opposite simple or com- 

 pound leaves, and hermaphrodite, or unisex- 

 ual flowers. The plants of the order are 

 bitter, tonic and astringent, and some yield 

 fixed oil. Olive oil is expressed from the 

 fruit of a cultivated vaiiety of Olea Europcea, 

 and the unripe fruit macerated in brine and 

 flavored with aromaticsis used as a condiment. 

 Ash-wood {Fraxinus) is invaluable for its light- 

 ness, flexibility and strength, several species 

 of OrHi<« yield manna, and the bark of the com- 

 mon Ash has been proposed as a substitute for 

 quinine. There are u pwards of twenty genera, 

 including Olea, Fraxinus. and Syringa, and 

 nearly one hundred and fifty species. 



Oleaginous. Fleshy in substance, but filled 

 with oil ; also, like oil. 



Oleander. See Xerium Oleander. 



Olea'ndra. A small genus of tropical Ferns 

 distinguished from Aspidium chiefly in habit, 

 with wide-creeping scandent shoots, jointed 



