Ochna
(from Ochne, the old Greek name, used by Homer, for the Wild Pear, to which the foliage of this genus bears some resemblance). ORD. Ochnaceae. A genus comprising about twenty-five species of stove, evergreen shrubs, natives of tropical Asia and tropical and Southern Africa. Flowers yellow, racemose, rising from below the leaves, from the wood of the preceding year; sepals five, coloured; petals five to ten; pedicels articulated. Fruit succulent, of five, ten, or fewer carpels, placed on the enlarged receptacle. Leaves alternate, deciduous, serrulate, rarely entire, coriaceous, shining, thickly nerved. Several species are very ornamental, but the undermentioned are probably the only ones in cultivation. They thrive best in a compost of sandy peat and fibry loam; plenty of drainage is very essential. Propagated, during summer, by cuttings of half-ripened shoots.
O. atropurpurea (dark purple). fl., petals yellow; calyx dark purple, with ovate lobes; pedicels solitary, one-flowered. l. ovate, acutely denticulate. h. 4ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1816. (B. M. 4519.) O. multiflora (many-flowered). fl. yellow, of very short duration. Spring. fr., receptacle gradually increasing in size, becoming globular in form, about the size of a Strawberry, but less conical, and similar in colour; upon it are placed the black, seed-like bodies, about the size of Peas, which are really the carpels, and these present a striking contrast with the bright crimson receptacle and calyx. l. narrow, elliptical, bright green, serrated. h. 4ft. to 5ft. Sierra Leone, 1820 and 1882. A remarkable and handsome plant.