ORTHROSANTHUS 



OSMANTHUS 



2411 



another for a week or so. Horticulturally it is classed 

 among tender bulbs, although it has a short thick rhi- 

 zome- WILHELM MILLER. 



ORYZA (derived from the Arabic name, Eruz). 

 Grammes. Marsh plants, with fls. in panicles: spike- 

 lets 1-fld., laterally compressed; glumes 2, minute; 

 lemma and palea about equal, keeled, scabrous, the 

 former usually more or less awned. Six species of the 

 tropics, including 0. saliva, Linn., the well-known rice 

 of commerce. Dept. Agric., Div. Agrost. 20:49. This 



2680. Oryzopsis racemosa. ( X H) 



is a native of the Old World tropics, and is naturalized 

 in Brazil; cult, extensively in China and India and more 

 recently in the coast region of our southern states. 

 Contrary to the usual supposition, rice paper is not 

 made from rice, but from paper mulberry or bamboo. 



A. S. HITCHCOCK. 



ORYZOPSIS (Greek, orusa, rice, and opsis, appear- 

 ance, from a fancied resemblance to that grain). Gra- 

 mineae. MOUNTAIN RICE. Mostly tufted perennials, 

 with narrow panicles of rather large greenish one- 

 flowered spikelets. 



Glumes thin, nerved, nearly equal; lemma coria- 

 ceous, sub-cylindrical, with a short callus at base, and 

 bearing a simple untwisted deciduous awn. Contains 

 about 24 species of temperate regions. Three of our 

 native species are offered by dealers in wild plants. 



racemdsa, Ricker (O. melanocdrpa, Muhl.). Fig. 

 2680. Distinguished by its leafy culm, the Ivs. broad 

 and flat: panicle simple or compound; lemma blackish; 

 awn about 1 in. long. Rocky woods, New England to 

 Mo. Blooms late in summer. 



asperifSlia, Michx. This and the next have tufted, 

 naked culms, the flat, concave or involute, rough-edged, 

 evergreen Ivs. crowded at the base; culms 9-18 in. 

 high, bearing nearly bladeless sheaths; awn ^in. long. 

 Northern states to Colo. Blooms early in spring. 



pungens, Hitchcock (0. canadensis, Torr.). Culm 

 6-15 in.: lowest sheaths leaf -bearing : Ivs. involute, 

 filiform; awn very short, deciduous or wanting. Maine 

 to Minn., on rocky hills; rare. Dept. Agric., Div. 

 Agrost. 20:63. 



miliacea, Benth. & Hook. Perennial, 2-3 ft. : blades 

 flat, J^in. wide: panicle loose and open, as much as a 

 foot long, with spreading branches; spikelets 1J^ lines 

 long, with a deciduous straight awn 2 lines long. Eu. 

 A form of this (called also Milium Thdmasii, Duby, and 

 Piptatherum Thomasii, Kunth) with numerous sterile 

 lower branches of the panicle, is sometimes cult, for 

 ornament. A . S> HITCHCOCK. 



OSAGE ORANGE: Madura. 



OSBECKIA (Peter Osbeck, 1723-1805, student of 

 Linnaeus, Swedish naturalist). Melastomdceas. About 

 60 species of herbs, subshrubs and shrubs in the tropical 

 parts of the eastern hemisphere, only seldom cult, for 

 the pink or reddish showy fls. that are borne in heads 

 or panicles or sometimes solitary: usually erect, and 

 scabrous or hispid: Ivs. 3-7-nerved, somewhat serrate 

 or entire: calyx- tube urn-shaped or nearly globose, 

 hispid, the limb mostly 5-lobed and the lobes some- 

 times deciduous; petals commonly 5, obovate; stamens 

 10 as a rule, the anthers with mostly 2 tubercles at 

 base: caps, small, in the dry calyx-tube. They are 

 grown as warmhouse herbs. Perhaps 0. stelldta, Wall, 

 is the species most likely to be found in cult. : shrub, 6-7 

 ft. or less, with 4-angled branchlets: Ivs. opposite, 

 ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 3-6 in. long, ciliate, 5- 

 nerved: fls. lilac-red, in terminal few-fld. clusters; 

 petals 4, nearly or quite orbicular, ciliate, 1% in. long. 

 India, China. B.M. 8500. J.F. 2:168. ,. H. B. 



OSIERS are willows used for baskets and willow-ware 

 in general. Some dogwoods are also sometimes called 

 osiers. The various kinds are described under Salix and 

 Cornus. Osier-culture is generally considered as belong- 

 ing to general agriculture, rather than to horticulture, 

 and is therefore not treated here. 



OSMANTHUS (Greek, fragrant flower). Okacese. 

 Ornamental woody plants grown for their handsome 

 foliage and the white fragrant flowers. 



Evergreen shrubs or small trees : Ivs. usually opposite, 

 short-petioled, entire or serrate: fls. axillary or terminal, 

 in cymes or short panicles, perfect, polygamous or 

 dioecious; calyx short, 4-toothed; corolla short-tubular, 

 with 4 imbricate lobes; stamens 2, rarely 4; ovary 

 2-celled: fr. an ovoid drupe with a 1-seeded stone. 

 About 10 species in E. and S. Asia, and Polynesia, and 1 

 in N. Amer. Sometimes united with Olea which differs 

 chiefly in its valvate corolla-lobes. 



The osmanthuses in cultivation are handsome shrubs 

 with coriaceous rather large leaves and small white 

 very fragrant flowers in axillary clusters followed in the 

 fertile plants by ovoid bluish drupes but rarely pro- 

 duced in cultivation. The hardiest species is O. Aqui- 

 folium which is hardy in sheltered positions as far north 

 as New York and possibly to Massachusetts. All the 

 others are tenderer and can be grown only in the South 

 and in California. In the North, 0. fragrans is fre- 

 quently grown as a greenhouse plant for its very fragrant 



