78 OLEACE^. Osmanthus. 



articulated : petals twice the length of the sepals : fruit not seen, but evidently drupa- 

 ceous. — Guadalupe Island, off Lower California (beyond the limits of this Flora), Dr. E. 

 Palmer. 



5. OSMANTHUS, Lour. (From oa^iri, odor, and avdog, blossom, the 

 flowers fragrant.) ■ — • Shrubs and small trees (of E. United States, Pacific Islands, 

 and N. E. Asia) ; with evergreen chiefly opposite leaves, and small flowers in 

 axillary clusters. Genus founded on the Chinese 0. fragrans, cultivated as a 

 house-plant for its deliciously fragrant small blossoms ; now distinguished from 

 Olea by the imbricated instead of valvate Eestivation of the corolla. — Benth. & 

 Hook. Gen. ii. 677. 



' O. Americanus, Benth. & Hook. (Devil-wood.) Tall shrub or small tree, gla- 

 brous : bark whitish : leaves firm-coriaceous, lanceolate-oblong, tapering into a short 

 petiole, entire, bright green, shining above (3 to 6 inches long), much longer than the 

 panicles of dull white (polygamous or even dioecious) fiowers : drupe small, dark purple. 

 — Lignstmn laurifolio, &c., Catesb. Car. i. 61, t. 61. Olea Americana, L. Mant. 24; Michx. 

 Fl. ii. 222; Michx. f. Sylv. iii. t. 6. — N. Carolina to Florida near the coast: fl. spring. 



6. MENODCRA, Humb. & Bonpl. {Mivog, force, and SaQov, gift.) Low 

 shrubby, suffruticose, or nearly herbaceous plants (American and one S. African) ; 

 with simple entire or pinnately lobed leaves, many of them alternate, and con- 

 spicuous flowers terminating the branches, or becoming lateral, or sometimes loosely 

 corymbosely cymose : fl. in spring or summer : corolla in ours yellow. — PI. 

 ^quin. ii. 98, t. 110 ; Gray in Am. Jour; Sci. ser. 2, xiv. 43 ; Benth. & Hook. 

 1. c. Bolivaria, Cham. & Schlecht. in Linn. i. 207. Calyptrospermum, Dietr. 

 Spec. i. 226. 



§ 1. Bolivj(ria. Corolla with short or very short tube; its lobes blunt or 

 hardly acute ; the throat commonly bearded within : filaments filiform : anthers 

 pointless. (§ Bolivaria & § Menodora, Gray, 1. c.) 



* Calyx-lobes rather short, 5 or 6, rarely some intermediate ones : leaves entire. 

 M. spinescens, G-ray. Thorny shrub, 2 to 4 feet high, rigid, divergently branched, 

 obscurely puberulent : leaves alternate, spatulate-linear and very small, commonly reduced 

 to minute scales or scav.s on the main branchlets : flowers small, almost sessile, terminating 

 short shoots: calyx-lobes a little shorter than the light yellow corolla, the oblong lobes of 

 which (a line and a half long) are rather shorter than the funnelform tube : capsule of 2 

 almost separate and diverging obovoid divisions. — Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 388, cSo Bot. CaUf. 

 i. 471. — Nevada and adjacent borders of California, Anderson, Cooper. 

 -M. sooparia, Bngelm. Shrubby at base, the slender branches herbaceous, glabrous or 

 nearly so : leaves linear or lanceolate, entire ; or the lower oblong or obovate, the upper 

 mainly alternate : flowers sparsely corymbose, short-peduncled : calyx-lobes at first little 

 longer than the tube of the almost rotate corolla (lobes of the latter ovate and 3 or 4 lines 

 long) : divisions of the capsule globular. — Bot. Calif. 1. c. — S. E. California, Arizona, and 

 adjacent parts of Mexico. Related to M. integrifolin of Buenos Ayres, and to the next. 



# * Calyx-lobes 7 to 15, slender, linear or subulate ; corolla nearly rotate, its obovate lobes much 

 longer than the tube. 



■ M. scabra, Gray. Herbaceous from a woody branching base, a span to a foot high, 

 Flax-like, whole herbage or at least the lower part puberulent-scabrous : loaves mostly 

 alternate, linear or the lower oblong, chiefly entire, 4 to 10 lines long : flowers rather 

 numerous : peduncles remaining erect : lobes of the bright yellow corolla obovate, 3 or 4 

 lines long. —Am. Jour. Sci. 1. c. ; Torn Pacif. R. Rep. vii. t. 7. — AV. Texas to N. New 

 Mexico and S. Arizona. 



- M. heteroph^Ua, Moricand. Nearly herbaceous, diffusely spreading, a span high, 

 almost glabrous but roughish : leaves mostly opposite and pinnately 3-7-clef t or parted ; 



