Chap. 4.] FIFTEEN VARIETIES OF OLIVES. 283 



the variety known as the royal olive, by some called majorina, 

 and by others phaulia ; 34 this berry being of the very largest 

 size, and yet yielding a minimum of juice. In Egypt, 35 too, 

 the berries, which are remarkably meaty, are found to produce 

 but very little oil ; while those of Decapolis, in Syria, are so 

 extremely small, that they are no bigger than a caper ; and 

 yet they are highly esteemed for their flesh. 36 It is for this 

 reason that the olives from the parts beyond sea are preferred 

 for table to those of Italy, though, at the same time, they are 

 very inferior to them for making oil. 



In Italy, those of Picenum and of Sidicina 37 are considered 

 the best for table. These are kept apart from the others and 

 steeped in salt, after which, like other olives, they are put in 

 amurca, or else boiled wine ; indeed, some of them are left to 

 float solely in their own oil, 38 without any adventitious mode 

 of preparation, and are then known as colymbades : sometimes 

 the berry is crushed, and then seasoned with green herbs to 

 flavour it. Even in an unripe state the olive is rendered fit 

 for eating by being sprinkled with boiling water ; it is quite 

 surprising, too, how readily it will imbibe sweet juices, and 

 retain an adventitious flavour from foreign substances. With 

 this fruit, as with the grape, there are purple 39 varieties, and 

 the posia is of a complexion approaching to black. Besides 

 those already mentioned, there are the superba 40 and a remark- 

 ably luscious kind, which dries of itself, and is even sweeter 

 than the raisin : this last variety is extremely rare, and is to 



34 Probably a member of the variety known to naturalists as the Olea 

 fructu majori, carne crassa, of Tournefort, the royal olive or " triparde " of 

 the French. The name is thought to be from the Greek cpdvXog, the 

 fruit being considered valueless from its paucity of oil. 



35 There are but few olive-trees in either Egypt or Decapolis at the 

 present day, and no attempts are made to extract oil from them. 



36 " Carnis." He gives this name to the solid part, or pericarp. 



37 See B. iii. c. 9. 



38 These methods are not now adopted for preserving the olive. The 

 fruit are first washed in an alkaline solution, and then placed in salt and 

 water. The colymbas was so called from Ko\vfif3d<D } "to swim," in its 

 own oil, namely. ^ Dioscorides descants on the medicinal properties of the 

 colymbades. ±5. i. c. 140. 



39 There are several varieties known of this colour, and more particularly 

 the fruit of the Olea atro-rubens of Gouan. 



40 The Spanish olive, Hardouin says. Fee thinks that the name " super- 

 ba," "haughty," is given figuratively, as meaning rough and austere. 



