OKRA 



OLEARIA 



2333 



(peduncles) an inch or so long so as to prevent wilting 

 in transit. Pack firmly in vegetable crates. The demand 

 for this vegetable is increasing, especially in New York 

 City. Seed is easily grown and saved. The plant is 

 subject to several diseases to such an extent that it is 

 impracticable to raise a crop on certain pieces of land. 

 Rotation is the best remedy. p jj ROLFS. 



OLAX (probably from the odor or smell). Olacdcese. 

 Thirty and more species of trees, sometimes scandent, 

 shrubs and subshrubs in the tropical parts of the Old 

 World, little known in cult.: Ivs. alternate, simple: 

 fls. white or whitish, sometimes colored, small, mostly 

 in short axillary simple or branched racemes; calyx 

 cup-shaped, minute; petals 3-6, some of them in some 

 species coherent; fertile stamens usually 3, sometimes 

 4 or 5, mostly standing opposite the edges of the petals; 

 staminodia 5 or 6, notched, mostly standing opposite 

 the petals; ovary free, in a cup-shaped disk, the stigma 

 3-lobed: fr. somewhat immersed in fleshy calyx, con- 

 taining a 1-seeded stone. None of the species seems 

 to be listed; probably some of them would be inter- 

 esting far S. L H B. 



OLDENBURGIA (S. Oldenburg, a collector for Kew 

 in 1772-3). Composite. Three species of remarkable 

 S. African stocky shrubs or subshrubs, with woolly 

 rootstocks, and large solitary heads of purple corollas. 

 They are not in general cult., but may be expected in 

 some of the botanical collections: Ivs in a rosette, 

 coriaceous and 1-nerved, very hairy underneath: fls. 

 all perfect in the head, the outer ones radiate; scales of 

 involucre linear, acuminate, not spiny: achene beak- 

 less, with a pappus of many plumose bristles. 0. Arbus- 

 cula, DC., has flowered in recent years in England (at 

 Kew the plant was 3 ft. high and unbranched at 16 

 years): Ivs. crowded at ends of branches, obovate or 

 oblong, to 18 in. long, at first white-woolly: fl.-heads 

 often 1 ft. across, purple and white. B.M. 7942. 

 G.C. III. 35:9. L. H. B. 



OLDENLANDIA (H. B. Oldenland, Danish botan- 

 ist, of the 17th century). Rubiacese. More than 200 

 species of shrubs, subshrubs and herbs in many parts 

 of the world, mostly tropical, of little value horti- 

 culturally. Fls. small, most inconspicuous, white or 

 rose-colored, rarely solitary but mostly in dichotomous 

 panicles; calyx mostly 4-toothed; corolla usually 4- 

 toothed, rotate, funnel-shaped or salver-shaped; sta- 

 mens mostly 4, inserted in the throat of the corolla: 

 fr. a small caps, adnate to calyx-tube, dehiscent at top : 

 Ivs. opposite, mostly small and narrow. A few annual 

 or perennial species are native in N. Amer., being 

 small plants of no prominence. L. H B 



OLDFIELDIA (from R. A. Oldfield, a merchant at 

 Sierra Leone). Euphorbiacese. Evergreen tropical tree 

 rarely cult, in greenhouses: Ivs. opposite, digitately 

 compound; Ifts. 5-7, entire, coriaceous, pinnately 

 veined: fls. dioecious, apetalous, in short axillary clus- 

 ters; stamens 4-10; ovules 2 in each cell. Related to 

 Bischofia. One species in Trop. Afr., O. africana, Hook., 

 is said to yield the African oak, or African teakwood, 

 sometimes exported. It may be grown from cuttings in 

 loam, leaf-mold and sand and should be well watered 

 when growing rapidly. j, 3. S. NORTON. 



OLD MAN. Another name for the southernwood, 

 Artemisia Abrotanum; also for the rosemary, Ros- 

 marinus officinalis; and probably for various hoary 

 plants. Artemisia Stelleriana is said to be known some- 

 times as Old Woman. 



OLD-MAN- AND- WO MAN, or common houseleek: Semper- 



rh'um lector um. 



OLD MAN CACTUS: Pilocereus senilis. 



OLD MAN'S BEARD. In Europe, Clematis Vitalba; 

 in America the common wild clematis, C. virginiana; 

 also Saxifraga sarmentosa; rarely the fringe tree, Chio- 

 nanthus. 



OLEA (classical name for olive). Oleaceae. OLIVE. 

 The olive tree and fruit; and other small trees or shrubs 

 of little importance in cultivation. (The Olea fragrans 

 of greenhouses is Osmanthus; also 0. Aquifolium.) 



Spiny or unarmed : Ivs. evergreen and thick, opposite, 

 usually entire, and often rusty-tomentose beneath: fls. 

 small, usually imperfect, white or whitish, in forking 

 panicles or fascicles, the short calyx 4-toothed (corolla 

 sometimes none), the short-tubed corolla with 4 val- 

 vate lobes, the stamens 2; ovary 2-loculed, bearing a 

 short style and capitate stigma: fr. an oblong or ovoid 

 drupe. Between 30 and 40 trees or shrubs of the 

 tropical and warm-temperate parts of the Old World 

 to New Zeal. 



europaea, Linn. Small tree, rarely exceeding 20 or 

 25 ft. in height, and bearing small oblong or lanceolate 

 Ivs. and axillary forking racemes of yellowish white 

 fragrant fls. It is probably native to the E. Medit. 

 region or W. Asia, but has been in cult, from the earliest 

 times and is spontaneous in parts of S. Eu. 



Var. Oledster, DC. (0. Oleaster, Hoffm. & Link. 0. 

 sylvestris, Mill. O. europaea var. sylvestris, Rouy). The 

 wild form: thorny, the branches 4-angled or -cornered: 

 Ivs. elliptic or oblong: fr. small, roundish, inedible. 



Var. comm&nis, Ait. (0. gdllica, Mill. 0. officindrum, 

 Crantz. 0. lancifolia, Moench. O. satwa, Hoffm. & Link. 

 O. europsea var. satwa, DC.). The cult, olive, a hand- 

 some gray-green tree, with thornless terete or only 

 obtuse-angled branches: Ivs. lanceolate, willow-like in 

 shape: fr. size of a damson or larger, nearly globular to 

 oblong. See Olive. 



chrysophylla, Lam. Small tree, noteworthy because 

 of the drab or golden color of the under surface of the 

 Ivs.: branchlets slender, lepidote or scurfy upward: Ivs. 

 lanceolate, 2-4 in. long, the petiole very short: fls. 

 small (corolla J^in. long), in axillary panicles: drupe 

 rather large and blackish, globose or somewhat long. 

 Trop. Afr. It has been intro. to cult, in S. Calif. 



L. H. B. 



OLEANDER: Nerium Oleander. 



OLEARIA (J. G. Olearius, who published a flora of 

 Halle, 1668). Composite. TREE-ASTER. Shrubs and 

 trees of Australia and New Zealand, allied to Aster, 

 somewhat planted abroad, but apparently not tested in 

 this country. 



The tree-asters are of more than 100 species, ever- 

 green, with white, blue or purple rays, many of which 

 are worthy of cult. : Ivs. alternate, or sometimes oppo- 

 site or fascicled, mostly tomentose beneath: heads 

 various in size, solitary or clustered, sometimes rayless, 

 the involucre with several rows of bracts that have 

 scarious or dry margins; ray-florets female, in a single 

 row; disk-florets perfect: achene terete or somewhat 

 compressed, bearing one or more rows of pappus bris- 

 tles. Some of the New Zealand species have large 

 usually solitary fl.-heads and stiff lanceolate toothed 

 Ivs., which should be tested in Amer.; Cockayne 

 writes that they require a moist equable climate with 

 low summer temperature, and are not suited to ordi- 

 nary garden conditions. Speaking of the New Zealand 

 olearias in general, of which there are more than 40 

 species, Cockayne says that all are well worthy of cult. ; 

 some are alpine and subalpine; some are both trees and 

 shrubs, others shrubs alone. 



Haastii, Hook., long known in south of England as 

 a good late summer- and autumn-blooming shrub and 

 apparently the only one that has been regularly offered 

 in this country: in New Zeal., where it is native (in the 

 south island), a shrub 4-8 ft. high, with hoary branches: 



