110 ORIXA OSMANTHUS 



its male and female flowers on different plants, its fruits are only obtain- 

 able when both sexes are grown. Mr Wilson, who saw them in China, 

 tells me they have the curious and interesting faculty when ripe of 

 shooting out the seed a distance of several feet in the same way as 

 Impatiens do. I have not seen this shrub anywhere except at Kew, and 

 as only the male plant exists there the fruit is unknown to me on the 

 living plant. The leaves have a pleasant, spicy odour when crushed. 

 This shrub is said to be largely used by the Japanese as a hedge plant, 

 In the Genera Plantarum of Bentham and Hooker it was erroneously 

 put under Celastrus. 



OSMANTHUS. OLEACE^. 



A small group of evergreen shrubs and small or medium-sized trees, 

 two of which inhabit the southern United States, the rest being Asiatic. 

 The species cultivated out-of-doors in Britain are all from China and 

 Japan. They are closely allied to the olive (Olea),^ and have opposite 

 leaves ; flowers white or yellowish, in small axillary or terminal clusters. 

 Calyx and corolla four-lobed ; stamens two. Fruit an oval drupe, usually 

 dark blue or violet. 



These shrubs are handsome evergreens with a holly-like appearance. 

 They are sometimes propagated by grafting on privet an undesirable 

 method for they are healthier and better on their own roots. Cuttings 

 taken about the end of July strike readily if given a little bottom heat. 

 They like a good loamy soil. 



O. FRA GRANS, Loureiro (Olea fragrans, Thunberg\ is too tender for general 

 cultivation. It has large, broad leaves shining green beneath, and white 

 flowers so strongly fragrant that one or two of them, tiny though they are, will 

 fill a fair-sized conservatory with sweet perfume. The Chinese use them for 

 perfuming tea. 



O. AQUIFOLIUM, Siebold. 



An evergreen shrub of rounded, dense, bushy habit, 10 ft. or more high 

 near London, twice as high in milder localities ; young shoots minutely downy. 

 Leaves oval, i^ to 2^ ins. long, I to i\ ins. wide, with two to four large 

 spine-tipped teeth down each side ; the largest teeth \ in. long, triangular. 

 In the adult stage the leaves on the top of the plant become oval or ovate, 

 and quite entire at the margins, like a myrtle. The upper surface is of a 

 dark, very glossy green, the lower one paler, both quite smooth ; stalk \ to \ 

 in. long. Flowers white, fragrant, \ to ^ in. across, borne during September and 

 October, four or five together, in short-stalked, axillary clusters. Fruit oblong, 

 in. long, in. wide, blue ; not often seen in this country. 



Native of Japan, where it is described by Sargent as attaining the 

 dimensions of a tree sometimes 30 ft. high, with a trunk I ft. or more in 

 diameter. Introduced by Thomas Lobb in 1856. As far as its foliage is 

 concerned, it is one of the handsomest of evergreens. Its leaves are very 

 like those of the holly, and the shrub is often mistaken for one, but it can, 

 of course, even without flower or fruit, be at once distinguished by its opposite 

 leaves. It has a number of varieties, of which the following are the most 

 important : 



Var. MYRTIFOLIUS. As stated above, when O. Aquifolium gets to the 



