104 NYSSA OLEARIA 



Native of Eastern N. America, chiefly found in swamps and ill-drained 

 land ; introduced sometime in the first half of the eighteenth century. It 

 is quite scarce in cultivation, and few trees of any size exist in Britain. Mr 

 Elwes gives the palm to one at Strathfieldsaye, which is probably about 

 So ft. high and 6 ft. in girth. There is a curious diversity in the leaves, 

 not only in shape, but in lustre. Of two small healthy trees at Kew growing 

 within a few yards of each other, one has dull-surfaced leaves, the other 

 has larger shining ones. The chief value of the tupelo in gardens, over and 

 above its great interest, is the brilliant red and yellow of its autumnal foliage. 

 Like many other American trees growing in wet situations at home, 

 it thrives best in ordinary good loam when transplanted to our gloomier 

 climate. 



OLEA EUROP^A, Linnceus. OLIVE. OLEACE.E. 



An evergreen tree of rugged, much-branched habit and slow growth, 

 generally 20 to 40 ft. high, with grey-green foliage. Leaves opposite, 

 narrowly obovate or oval; ij to 3 ins. long, \ to f in. wide; glaucous 

 or silvery beneath, leathery. Flowers white, -J- in. diameter, in axillary 

 racemes i to 2 ins. long, the corolla with four ovate lobes ; stamens two. 

 Fruit an oval, oily drupe, J in. long, containing a bony seed. 



Native of Asia Minor and Syria, now largely cultivated all over the 

 Mediterranean region. In many parts of Italy, as in the environs of 

 Florence,, its grey tints give the prevailing tone to the landscape. In 

 Britain it can only be cultivated out-of-doors in the mildest parts. It has 

 borne fruit in Lord Mount Edgcumbe's garden, near Plymouth, and 

 probably other places in the south-west. At Kew it has lived for a good 

 many years on a south wall, but in such a place is only worth growing for 

 its interest and associations. 



OLEARIA. DAISY BUSHES. COMPOSITE. 



Of this large group of evergreen shrubs and small trees, numbering 

 over one hundred species, all of which belong in nature to the Australasian 

 region, only one has yet been proved generally hardy. This is O. Haastii. 

 O. myrsinoides is promising, and in the southern and western counties, in 

 various parts of Ireland and the west of Scotland, some ten or twelve 

 species are grown. They are probably the most ornamental shrubs of 

 the Composite order that are as hardy in the British Isles. They like 

 a light loamy or peaty soil free from lime, and most of them can be 

 increased by cuttings made of moderately ripened wood and placed in 

 gentle heat. 



Olearias are nearly allied to asters and have much the same type of 

 flowers. The leaves are opposite or alternate, and more or less felted 

 beneath. Besides the species described more fully below, there are : 

 O. FORSTERI, Hooker fit., over 20 ft. high in the Marquis of Lansdowne's 

 garden at Derreen; O. INSIGNIS, Hooker fil., a low shrub which thrives 

 at Old Conna Hill, Belgrove, near Cork, and elsewhere in Ireland; 

 O. NUMMULARIFOLIA, Hooker fil., with very numerous closely set, 

 roundish, thick, stalkless leaves, J to \ in. long; O. NITIDA, Hooker fit., 



