0421 



OSYRIS. 



Family: ELEAGNACEAE. [Translator's note: now in family Santalaceae]. 

 Reproductive system: DlOECY, TRIANDRY. 



The white osyris, Osyris alba, Linn., is a shrub of the southern provinces that 

 grows two or three feet high and has a very branchy stem. The leaves are sessile, oblong, 

 pointed, and very entire. The small yellow flowers are clustered at the ends of the stems 

 and branches. They are dioecious and have a pleasant scent. The male flowers have a 

 colored monophyllous calyx with three oval sections that are open, and three stamens. 

 The female ones have an ovary that's adherent to the calyx and crowned with three 

 stigmas. The fruit is a rounded red berry that terminates in an umbilicus and contains a 

 globular kernel. 



FLOWERS: in May and June. 



RANGE: southern France, around Montpellier. I've found that they're plentiful 

 close to Grasse and Antibes. 



NOMENCLATURE. According to Pliny, Osyris was the Egyptian name for a sacred 

 plant that cured all ills. The Romans used the same name for a bush that had long flexible 

 branches; we know no more about it than we do about the Egyptian plant mentioned by 

 Pliny. In colloquial French, le rouvet 



USES. There's nothing special about this plant, however it's cultivated in many 

 gardens as a curiosity. In the southern provinces the branches are used to make brooms. 



CULTIVATION. In the north of France the osyris is kept in conservatories, where 

 it needs no more than ordinary care. 



