OSAGE OF ECONOMIC PLANTS. 303 



form." He further says that he had " three sj)ecies sent from 

 America, which he planted with care in pots and placed tliem 

 in a stove, where they showed their flowers, but the plants soon 

 after perished." However, in time their cultivation became 

 understood, and new species continued to be introduced, cliiefly 

 from the West Indies and Brazil ; and in the second edition of 

 Hortus Keivejisis (1813), 84 exotic species are recorded, and in 

 1850 the collection in the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, numbered 830 

 species, the greater number of which were considered only as 

 botanical curiosities. For the curious forms and movements 

 see Darwin's book on Orchids. 



Ordeal Bean of Old Calabar. (See Calabar Bean.) 



Ordeal Tree of Madagascar (Tanghinia or Cerhera i-encni- 

 fera), a soft-wooded, small tree of the Dogbane family (Apocy- 

 naceae), wdth stiff branches and elliptical lanceolate leaves 4 or 5 

 inches in length, generally in tufts at the apex of the branches, 

 and leaving a prominent mark or scar on falling away. It has 

 pretty, whitish-pink flowers, and produces a fleshy, fibrous drupe 

 about the size of a magnum bonum plum, containing a hard stone- 

 like seed, the kernel of which is highly poisonous. In Madagascar 

 persons suspected of crime are made to swallow a small portion 

 of the kernel, and if they die from its effects are supposed to be 

 guilty. It is said to produce death in twenty minutes. Con- 

 demned criminals are also put to death by simply being pricked 

 with a lance dipped in the juice of the kernels. 



Orris-root. — Iris florcntina^ I. germanica, and /. iMllida, 

 species of the Iris family (IridacCcX^). They belong to the group 

 having thick creeping rhizomes, native of the South of Europe. 

 These rhizomes have a strong smell of violets, and form the 

 sweet-smelling Orris used in perfumery. {See Iris.) 



Osage Orange {Machira aurantiaca), tree of the Mulberry 

 family (Moraceoe), native of North America. It is a straggling 

 tree, which, on account of its strong spines, is often used as a 

 hedge plant ; it is hardy in this country, and forms with us a low 

 shrub. The fruit (so called) consists of a firm fleshy globose 

 receptacle the size and colour of an orange, but is not eatable. 



