Olax
(from olax, a furrow; flowers partially furrowed or imbricated). SYNS. Fissilia, Lopadocalyx, Spermaxyrum. ORD. Olacineae. A genus of about twenty-two species of stove, often climbing, glabrous trees, shrubs, or sub-shrubs; eight are found in Australia, ten in tropical Asia, and four are indigenous to tropical Africa or Madagascar. Flowers small, disposed in short axillary spikes or racemes, rarely solitary. Leaves alternate, often distichous, entire, articulated with the branches. The undermentioned species, probably the only ones known to cultivation, thrive in a compost of sandy peat, fibry loam, and a little dried leaf mould. Propagated by cuttings of ripened shoots, inserted in sand, under a bell glass, in heat. O. imbricata (imbricated). fl. white; racemes axillar, imbricated. December. fr. ovate. l. oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, bifarious, entire, shining. East Indies, 1820. Climbing shrub.
O. scandens (climbing). fl. white, racemose; petals six. December. l. pubescent beneath. Stem prickly; branches terete, climbing. Coromandel, 1820. Shrub.
O. stricta (upright). fl. white, abortive. l. oblong-linear, mucronate. Australia, 1820. Erect glabrous shrub. SYN. Spermaxyrum strictum.