OSTilOWSKIA 



OTHONNA 



1179 



A dark blue variety was thought to exist, but unfortu- 

 nately nothing of the kind has been seen in cultivation. 

 Altogether it is a very singular plant, with its great fleshy 

 roots, sometimes 2 ft. long, its whorled Ivs., and the 

 conspicuous pores of the capsule, which are twice as 

 numerous as the sepals — a generic character. Unlike 

 Platycodon, its Ivs. are membranous and light green. 

 It is the only species in the genus. As a genus Ostrow- 

 .skya is close to Campanula, being distiiigiiisliiMi by the 

 whorled Ivs. and the floral parts nuiiiiTicallv tjrrater. 



The Giant Harebell needs a ib-c|.ly w.irk.d, i.crfectly 

 drained, sandy soil. Soon after flowering the plants go 

 to rest and nothing is left of them above ground. Their 

 place should be carefully marked to protect the brittle 

 roots from careless digging. Our dry summers and au- 

 tumns seem to suit the plants well, but fretjuently in a 

 moist October growth starts and this seriously weakens 

 the old plants. When only a few plants are grown, a 

 tight board covering will be found convenient for keep- 

 ing the roots dry and dormant. For winter protection 

 it is advisable to give a liberal covering of litter. Ex- 

 cessive moisture will destroy the crown. Flowering 

 specimens can hardly be expected within i years from 

 seed, and seeds are slow to germinate unless fresh. 

 Nurserymen now propagate the plant by cuttings of 

 the young growths taken with a heel in spring; ama- 

 teurs by root-cuttings. 



magnifica, Regel. Giant Bell-flower. Tall, strict, 

 glabrous herb, with tuberous roots: Ivs. in distant 

 whorls of 4 or 5, ovate, toothed, short-stalked, 4-6 in. 

 long: calyx-lobes 2 in. long, spreading or recurved: 

 floral parts ,^-9, usually 7: style large, thick, vellow. 

 Eastern Bokhara, at 7,000 ft. Gn. 34:681; 52, "p. 481. 

 B.M. 7472. G.P. 6:276. A.F. 4:331. V. 11:305. G.M. 

 31:459, 461. R.H. 1893:472 and p. 473; 1888, p. 344. 

 I.H. 35:71. G.C. III. 4:65. S.H. 1:437. 



J. B. Keller and W. M. 



6STRYA (ancient name). Cuputiferw. Ostrya Vir- 

 giniva, commonly known in America as Hop Hornbeam, 

 Irouwood or Leverwood, is a small- to medium-sized 

 tree, with birch-like foliage, slender yellow male cat- 

 kins borne in spring, and female catkins which look 

 like clusters of hops, and ripen in July and August. In 

 the eastern states the Hop Hornbeam usually grows 

 about 15 to 18 ft. high, but in the Middle West it grows 

 much higher, sometimes attaining 50 ft. The bark is 

 beautifully furrowed. The species has a wide range, 

 but is not common. O. carpinifolia. Scop., and O. Ja- 

 ponicn, Sarg., have proved hardy at the Arnold Arbore- 

 tum. 



Ostrya is a genus of 4 species — the following, one in 

 southwestern U. S., one in Eu. and Asia and one in Ja- 

 pan. Catkins borne with the Ivs. or before; males 

 drooping, sessile at the ends of branchlets of the pre- 

 vious year, their fls. solitary in the axil of each bract; 

 females terminal, solitary, erect, their fls. 2 to each 

 bract, enclosed by a bractlet, which in fruit enlarges 

 into a closed membranous bladder: male fls. without 

 bractlets; stigmas 2: nut compressed, sessile in the 

 base of the bladder-like sac. 



Virginica, Willd. Fig. 1597. Lvs. ovate or oblong- 

 ovate, acuminate, doubly serrate : bladders 6-8 lines 

 long, 4-5 lines wide in fruit; female catkins lK-2>^ in. 

 long. Dry woods. Cape Breton to Minn., .south to Fla. 

 and Tex. S.S. 9:445. B.B. 1:507. Gn. 24, pp. 2.30, 231. 



OSWEGO TEA. Monarda dUlyma. 



0TH£BA Japbnica, imported by Berckmans, Au- 

 gusta, Oa. , is an evergreen shrub, with obovate or ob- 

 loug-obovate glabrous lvs., entire or nearly so, and 2-3 

 in. long. There can be but little doubt that it is a species 

 of Ilex, but the shape of the lvs. does not agree exactly 

 with the figure given by Thunberg of his O. Jnponica, 

 which was subsequently referred to Ilex by Sprengel 

 under the name /. Othera. In none of the more recent 

 publif.itiuTis on the Japanese flora, however, is either 

 name iinntioned, and it is likewise omitted in the 

 monograph of Ilex by Maximowicz. As the genus 

 Othera has no botanical standing it is perhaps the best 

 to use Ilex Othera as a provisional name for the culti- 



vated plant until it has borne fls. and fr., and thus en- 

 abled us to determine its exact botanical position. In 

 foliage it resembles very much /. Integra, and it may 

 probably prove to he this species when the fruits are 

 known. The Othera Japonk-a of Thunberg as figured 

 in his Icones Plantarum Japonicarum, pi. 13, is much 

 like I. rotunda, and may represent a plant of this species 

 with staminate fls. The hardiness of the cultivated Ilex 

 Othera is probably the same as that of /. tatifolia and 

 Integra, and also its cultivation and propagation. See 

 Onxa. Alfred Rehder. 



Othera Japoniea, a very beautiful ornamental ever- 

 green shnib or small tree, is well established in several 

 Florida gardens. In the late E. H. Hart's garden, at 

 Federal Point, Fla., there is a small, bushy, dense tree, 

 about 22 feet high, which has flowered and fruited abun- 

 dantly. Two plants in my own garden, one on high pine 

 land, the other in richer soil near the lake, have done 

 exceedingly well, though the one in moist ground is by 

 far the larger and very dense. They were planted out in 

 the fall of 1896, and the most vigorous one is now 7 feet 

 high, and as much in diameter, provided with branches 

 from the ground. The plant resembles Ilex Integra, 

 but is <lifl:erent in habit and growth. Whatever its cor- 

 rect botanical name may be, it is a very beautiful plant 

 for the extreme South, and it well responds to good cul- 

 tivation and fertilizing. h_ Nehrlino. 



OTHONNA (ancient Greek name, of no particular 

 application here). Coynpdsitw. About 80 South African 

 herbs and shrubs, of which one (Fig. 1598) is in general 

 cultivation as a window-garden plant. The heads are 

 usually yellow, with fertile rays and sterile tubular 

 disk florets: torus convex or somewhat conical, usually 

 honeycombed : scales of involucre in one series, more 

 or less united to the base, valvate : style of disk fls. 

 not divided : akenes oval, with bristle-like pappus in 

 many rows or series. Only one species of Othonna ap- 

 pears to be in general cultivation, and this has no es- 

 tablished vernacular name in this country, although it 

 is sometimes dubbed "Little Pickles" because of its 

 cylindrical, pulpy leaves. 



The plant shown in Fig. 1598 is commonly known as 



1597. Hop Hornbeam— Oatrya. Vireinica (X K)- 



Othonna erassifolia, but thereby arises a puzzle in no- 

 menclature. By Linnffius a certain flat-leaved plant was 

 called Othonna erassifolia. Subsequently some of the 

 species of Othonna were separated by Jaubert & Spach 

 into a distinct genus, Othonnopsis, distinguished by in- 

 volucral scales distinct and style of the disk florets 2- 

 parted. One of the plants relegated to this new genus 

 was Othonna cheirifolia.,hinn., which then became Othon- 

 nopsis cheirifolia, Jaub. & Spach. Beutham & Hooker 

 consider Linnaeus' Othonna erassifolia to be a horticul- 

 tural form of Othonnopsis cheirifolia. It was therefore 

 a natural sequence to say that the Othonna erassifolia 

 of horticulturists is properly Othonnopsis cheirifolia, 

 a statement which the writer made in the revision of 

 Gray's "Field, Forest and Garden Botany." It turns 

 out, however, that the Othonna erassifolia of horticul- 

 turists is not the Othonna erassifolia of Linnaeus (if he 

 has been correctly reported). The former plant is a 

 true Othonna. It is the Othonna erassifolia of Har- 

 vey; but since this name erassifolia was used by Lin- 

 nffius, it cannot be used again in the same genus, and 

 Harvey's plant must take some other name. In fact, 

 before Harvey's time, the name Othonna erassifolia 

 was used by Meyer for still another species. The O. 



