112. OSMANTHUS AMERICANOS DEVIL- WOOD, WILD OLIVE. 37 



HABITAT. From southern North Carolina southward to northern 

 Florida, westward into Texas and up the Mississippi valley to southern 

 Illinois and Indiana, growing in wet soil and particularly along -the banks 

 of sluggish streams and river-swamps subject to inundation. In these 

 localities when covered with its yellow flowers it is quite a conspicuous 

 object. We were impressed with that feature as we were riding down 

 the Apalachicola River soon after the middle of February, when the de- 

 ciduous trees were quite as bare as in midwinter. The Swamp Privet 

 with its masses of yellow bloom, and the Red Maple with its deep crimson 

 keys were in conspicuous relief against the generally prevailing somber 

 gray of the Spanish Moss and naked branches on all sides. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood light, soft, not strong, of very close 

 grain, with fine medullary rays and yielding a smooth polish. The 

 heart-wood is of a light brown color and the abundant sap-wood nearly 

 white. Specific Gravity, 0.6345; Percentage of Ask, 0.72; Relative Ap- 

 proximate Fuel Value, 0.6299; Coefficient of Elasticity, 70282; Modulus 

 of Rupture, 717; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 401; Resistance to 

 Indentation, 107; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 39.54. 



USES. This wood is little used owing to its limited abundance of 

 proper size, though its properties would suggest a usefulness in turnery 

 etc. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. So far as known this tree does not possess 

 any medicinal properties. 



GENUS OSMANTHUS, LOUREIRO. 



Leaves simple, opposite, entire or toothed, persistent and without stipules. Flowers 

 polygamo-dioecious, appearing in spring or autumn, in short axillary racemes or 

 cymes, or axillary or terminal fascicles, with pedicels subtended by scale-like bracts; 

 calyx canipanulate with 4 short lobes, persistent; corolla white or yellowish, with 4 

 ovate, obtuse spreading lobes ; stamens 2 or rarely 4, with slender filaments and 2- 

 celled anthers opening by longitudinal slits along their sides: pistil with columnar 

 style, capitate, entire stigma, and 2-celled ovary, containing 2 laterally attached, 

 pendulous, anatropous ovules in each cell. Fruit a drupe, usually 1-seeded, tipped 

 with the remnant of the style, with thin fleshy epicarp, and thick hard stone ; seed 

 with elongated embryo and fleshy albumen. 



(Osmanthus is from the Greek oonrj , odor, and av&oS, flower, alluding to the 

 fragrance of the flower of the type species.) 



112. OSMANTHUS AMERICANUS, B. AND H. 

 DEVIL-WOOD, WILD OLIVE. 



Ger., Amerikanischer Oelilbaum ; Fr., Olivier d'Amerique; Sp., Madera 



del diablo. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves lanceolate-oblong to narrow obovate. 4-5 in. long, 

 generally acute at apex and gradually narrowed to a broad stout petiole, entire, with 

 revolute margin, thick, coriaceous, glabrous, lustrous green above at maturity, with 

 straight veins and conspicuous mid-rib depressed above, prominent beneath, and small 



