8i4 



Devilwood 



being known; the other, also cultivated for ornament and known as the Chinese 

 fringe, Chionanthus retusa Paxton, is a native of eastern Asia. The name is the 

 Greek for snowflower, in reference to the white flowers. 



IV. DEVILWOOD 



GENUS OSMANTHUS LOUREIRO 

 Species Osmanthus americana (Linnaeus) Bentham and Hooker 

 Olea americana Linnaeus 



[|LSO called Wild ohve, this small evergreen tree or shrub of the coastal 

 region from North CaroHna to Florida and eastern Louisiana, attains 

 a maximum height of about 15 meters, with a trunk diameter of 3 dm. 

 The bark is thin and close, scaly, dark gray or reddish gray. The 

 twigs are slender, slightly angular, Hght reddish brown, becoming round, and gray. 

 The buds are about 1 2 mm. long, covered by 2 thick scales. The leaves are thick, 

 leathery, narrowly elHptic, lanceolate or oblanceolate, pointed at the apex, nar- 



FiG. 746. Devilwood. 



rowed at the base into a short stalk, entire, thick and revolute on the margin, 

 bright green, smooth, and shining above, paler beneath. The flowers are very 

 fragrant, appearing in March in axillar}^ clusters; calyx small, smooth, with 4 stiff, 

 sharp, triangular lobes; the corolla is 4-lobed, 3 to 4 mm. long and whitish; in the 

 pistillate flowers the stamens are reduced, rudimentary or very small; style of the 

 pistillate flowers terminating in a large, slightly exserted stigma; in the staminate 

 flowers, the stigma is reduced to a mere point. The fruit, ripening in early 

 autumn, is oval-ovoid or oval-obovoid, 12 to 18 mm. long, deep purple to blue or 

 yellow-green; its flesh is dry and thin; the ovoid stone contains a single seed. 



