1320
ARBORETUM AND FIIUTICETUM.
TART Ill.
distinctly striated. The wood is extremely light and soft; and as, in the arrangement of its fibres, itresembles other species of the same genus, it is employed for making bowls and trays. The roots,also, are tender and light, and they are used by fishermen to buoy up their nets with, instead qfcork. {Ibid.) This species is described in Martyn’s Miller as the Virginian water tupelo tree,rising, with a strong upright trunk, to the height of 80 ft. or 100 ft., and dividing into manybranches towards the top. The drupes, Professor Martyn adds, “ are nearly the size and shape ofsmall olives, and are preserved as that fruit is, by the French inhabitants of the Mississippi , wherethis species of N^ssa greatly abounds, and is called the olive tree. The timber is white and softwhen unseasoned, but light and compact when dry ; which renders it very proper for bowls, &c.”It sometimes varies, in having the leaves quite glabrous, and less deeply toothed.
Genus II.
ifc i
OSY'llIS L. The Osyris, or Poet ’s Casia. Lin. Syst. Dioe'cia Triandria.
Identification. Lin. Gen. PI.; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 715.
Synonyme. Ck sia Camer., Lob., Alpin., Gesn.
Derivation. The Osuris of Pliny and Dioscorides is so named from oxos, a branch ; from the lengthand pliability of the branches.
Identification. Lin. Sp. PI., 1450.} Willd. Sp. PL, 4. p. 715.; Foy. Lugdb., 202.;Sauv. Monsp., 56. ; Gouan Monsp., 502.} Gron. Orient., 308.; Mill. Diet. , No.1.; Scop. Carn., No. 1215.
Synonymes. O. fbliis linearibus aciltis Lcefi. It., 169.; 0. frutescens bacciferaBauh. Pin., 212. ; Ck sia poetica Monspeliensium Cam. Epit., 26., Lob. Ic.,432.; C&sia Latinbrum Alp. Exot., 41.} C&sia Monspelii dicta Gesn. Epit., 50.;weisse Osyris, Ger
Engravings. Lam. Ill., t. 802.; T. Nees ab Esenbeck Gen. Plant. FI. Ger. Ic. etdes Illust., t. 20.} and our fig. 1202.
Spec. Char., %c. A shrub 3—4 ft. high. Stem roundish, striated. Leaves alter-nate, linear-lanceolate, 1 in. long, entire, glabrous. Flowers upon the branch-lets, peduncled. Drupe red, of the size of a pea. {Willd.) A native of Italy ,Spain , Montpelier, Libanus, and Carniola . Introduced in 1793, and cultivatedby Miller; but we have not seen the plant. The long supple branches of thistree were formerly used for brushes, and they are still used in making crates,or packing-cases in the south of Europe . It .is celebrated by Keats for thewhiteness of its flowers :—
-“ A dimpled hand,
Fair as some wonder out of Fairy-land,
Hung from his shoulder: like the drooping flowers
Of whitest casia, fresh from summer showers.” Poems, p. 24.
t >>-1
CHAP. XCVII.
OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER EUffiAGNA'CEAi .
They are included in three genera, itdteagnus Tourn., Ffippophae L., and
Shepherdia Nutt.; and these have the following characters : —
.Eliea'gnus Tourn. Flowers, some bisexual; some, in result, male only ;both kinds upon one plant.—Bisexual flower. Calyx resembling, internally,a corolla; tubular below, bell-shaped above, with a slightly spreading, lobed,deciduous limb ; the lobes mostly 4; the tubular part includes, but is notconnate with, the ovary and part of the style, and bears at its mouth aconical crown, through which the style passes. Style long. Stigma clavateor coiled. Stamens arising from the bottom of the bell-shaped part,shorter than it, alternate with its lobes, the filaments adnate to it, except attheir tip. Ovary oblong. Ovule 1. Fruit consisting of an aehenium, andof the tubular part of the calyx rendered fleshy, and including the aehenium.Seed erect. Embryo erect. — Male flower. Calyx resembling, internally,a corolla, bell-shaped; it has a limb of 4—6—8 lobes. Stamens of thenumber of the lobes; otherwise as in the bisexual flower. A conical crown