O S T 



O S T 



the leaves wider, yellowish : panicle large, with 

 shorter awns : the seed oblong, largish, glutinous, 

 usually verv white. This is culuvatcd both in 

 wet and dry places. 



It varies with a black seed, which is higher 

 flavoured, and ali^o with a red seed. 



There are other varieties. 



' Culture. — ^Thcse plants may be increased by 

 seeds in the early spring. 



The seeds should be sown on a hot-bed, and 

 when the plants are come up, be transplanted 

 into pots (iUcd with rich light earth, and placed 

 in pans of water, which ^hould be plunged into 

 a hot-bed ; and as the water wastes, it must be 

 renewed from time to time. They must be kept 

 in the stove all the summer, and towards the end 

 of August they will produce the grain, which 

 will ripen tolerably well, provided the autunin 

 prove favourable for the pl.mis. 



They afford va.nety inthe hot housecollcetions. 



OSIER. SceSALix. 



OSTEOSl'ERMUM, a genus comprising 

 plants of the shrubby exotic kind for the green- 

 house. 



It belongs to the class and order Sijngene^ia 

 Puhjsj^amia Necessaria, and ranks in the natural 

 order of CimiposUce Dhcohhip. 



The characters are: that the calyx is common, 

 simple, hemispherical, many leaflets aw'l-shapcd, 

 small : the corolla is compound, rayed : the eo- 

 roUets hermaphrodite very many, in the disk : 

 females about ten in the ray : proper of the hcr- 

 rnaphrodite tubular, five- toothed, the length of 

 the calyx : of the female ligulate, linear, three- 

 toothed, very long: the stamina in the herma- 

 phrodites have live capillary filaments, very 

 short ; anther cylindrical, tubulous : the pistil- 

 lum in the hermaphrodites has the germ very 

 small : style fdiform, scarcely the length of the 

 stamens: stigma obsolete : — in the females, germ 

 globular : style filiform, the length of the sta- 

 mens : stigma emarginate : there is no pericar- 

 pium : calyx unchanged : the seeds in the her- 

 maphrodites none- — in the females solitary, sub- 

 globular, coloured, at length hardened, inclosing 

 a kernel of the same shape : pappus none : the 

 receptacle is naked and flat. 



The species cultivated are: 1. 0. spinosum. 

 Prickly Osteospermum ; 2. 0. phiferum, 

 Smooth Osteospermi'.m ; 3. 0. monUiferum, 

 Poplar-Leaved Osteosperumm ; 4. 0. f'lJy- 

 gaUjUts ; 5. 0. ccerukum. Blue- flowered 

 Osteospermum. 



The first is a low shrubbv plant, which sel- 

 dom rises above three feet high, and divides into 

 many branches : the ends of the shoots are beset 

 w ilh green branching spines : the leaves are very 

 clammy, especially in warm weather ; they are 



long and narrow, and set on without any order : 

 the flowers are produced singly at the ends of the 

 shoots ; they are all yellow, and appear in July 

 and August. It is a native of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, {lowering from February to October. 



The second species has the angles of the 

 branches tof)thleted by the back ol the peti- 

 oles nmning down, and are frequently wholly 

 involved in wool, which disappears with age : the 

 leaves are wedge-form, erose : the peduncles 

 scaly : the flow ers small : the seeds obovate : 

 the stem four or five feet high, dividing into many 

 branches towards the top, which spread out flat 

 on every side; they have a purplish bark. It 

 produces tufts of yellow flowers at the extremity 

 of the shoots, from spring to autumn. 



The third rises with a shrubby stalk seven or 

 eight feet high, covered with a smooth gray 

 bark, and dividing into several branches : the 

 leaves alternate, of a thick consistence, covered 

 with a hoary down, which goes oft' from the 

 older leaves, unequally indented on their edges : 

 the flowers are in clusters at the ends of the 

 branches, six or eight coining out together on pe- 

 tioles an inch and half long, of a yellow colour. 

 It seldom flowers in this climate; but the time 

 of its flowering is July or August. 



The fourth species has three small branches : 

 the leaves small, oblong, sessile, on some of the 

 upper branches imbricate : the flow ers come out 

 at the end of the branches, standing singly on 

 peduncles about an inch long. 



The fifth is an undershrub, three feet high, 

 with a strong smell : the root woody, branching, 

 fibrous : the stem somewhat woody, erect, round, 

 regularly branched, gray : the leaves alternate, 

 spreading : segments alternate, (some almost 

 opposite,) oblong, acute, serrate ; the lower si- 

 nuses wider, deeper, parallel to the midrib; the 

 upper ones rounded ; they are without veins, and 

 have only one nerve prominent beneath ; are of 

 the same colour on both sides, and fragrant, from 

 an inch and a half to two inches in length, and 

 fifteen lines m breadth: the flow ers terminating, 

 very loosely cor\-n:bed, peduncled, erect, blue, 

 an inch wide. It is a native of the Cape. 



Culture. — These plants may be increased by 

 cuttings of the young shoots, which may be 

 planted in any of the summer months, upon a 

 bed of light earth, being watered and shaded 

 until they have taken root, when they must be 

 taken up and planted out separately in pots ; as 

 when they are suffered lo stand long, they are 

 apt to make strong vigorous shoots, anil be diffi- 

 cult lo transplant afterward, especially the second 

 and third sens ; but there is not so much dans,er 

 of the first, which is not so vigorous, nor so easv 

 in taking root as the other. In the summer seasoti 



