CHAP. LXXV. OLEA CEA. 1207 
Mench; has the leaves lanceolate and glabrous. There is a plant in 
the Horticultural Society’s Garden. 
& ¥ C.v. 4 maritima Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., i. p. 8.;  C. maritima Lodd. 
Cat., ed. 1836 ; is a native of North America, in boggy woods by the 
sea side; having the leaves obovate-lanceolate, membranous, and 
pubescent ; the panicles very loose; and the drupes elliptic. There is 
a fine plant of this variety, as a stool, in the Marylebone Nursery. 
App. I. Half-hardy ligneous Species of Oledcee belonging to 
the Section Oléine. 
Olea L., the olive, is an important genus in the south of Europe, and in the temperate parts of 
Asia and Africa, by the sea coast; and it promises also tobe a valuable tree in Australia. There 
are a number of species; but none of them are of much 
value in rural economy, except the 0. europe‘a. In Don’s 
Miller, 26 species are described, from which we shall select 
three, and some varieties, which are found to stand the open air, 
in the neighbourhood of London, against a south wall, with 
very little protection. We shall also give a selection of varieties 
suitable for introducing into Australia and other colonies. 
? O. europe‘a L.; O. Oleaster Hoffmansegg Fi. Port., 1. 
p. 387., Don’s Mill., 4. p.46.; O.europz'a communis A7t.; O. 
sylvéstris Mill. Dict., Blackw., t. 113.3; is a native of Portugal, 
the south of France, Spain, and Italy; and is to the cultivated 
olive (QO. e. sativa) what the crab is to the apple. 
# Oe. sativa; O. sativa Hoffmansegg; O. europex'a Miche. 
Arb., 2. t. 37. ; and our fig. 1031.; the cultivated olive, is said to 
have been brought originally from Asia to France, Spain, and 
Italy; in which countries it has been cultivated almost from. 
time immemorial. ‘The subvariety O. e. s. longifolia (fig. 1032.) is that chiefly cultivated in France 
and Italy, and O. e. s. latifolia in Spain. The fruit of the latter is nearly twice the size of the 
common olive of Provence or Italy; but the oil is so rank in flavour as to be too strong for most 
English palates. The oil, and the fruit in.a pickled state, 
are sent chiefly from Languedoc, Leghorn, and Naples, 
to England. The best oil is from Leghorn, and the best 
pickles are from Genoa and Marseilles. The tree seldom 
exceeds 30 ft. in height; is branchy, glaucous, evergreen, 
and of such great longevity, that some plantations in Italy, 
as at Terni (which we passed through in 1819, on our way 
to the Falls of Marmora), are supposed to have existed 
from the time of Pliny. The tree delights in schistous 
calcareous declivities, but does not thrive in elevated 
situations, or at a distance from the sea. The best oil is 
produced from fruits grown on calcareous soils. Olive oil 
may be said to form the cream and butter of Spain and 
Italy ; and the tree has been celebrated in all ages as the 
bounteous gift of Heaven, and as the emblem of peace 
and plenty. Olive oil is made by crushing the fruit to a 
paste, then pressing it through a hempen or rush bag, 
adding hot water, and afterwards skimming off the oil 
from its surface. Pickled olives are prepared from unripe 
fruit, chiefly from the subvariety O.e. s. oblénga (Pignola, 
Ital.; Picholine, Fr.),by steeping them in alkaline water, 
and afterwards bottling them in salt and water, with or 
without some kind of spice, or aromatic. The oliveis propagated, in some parts of Italy, by cuttings, and 
what are called uovoli (little eggs), and in other parts by seed. The uovoli are knots, swellings, or tu- 
mours in the wood, occasioned by the sap not returning freely to the root, but swelling through the bark 
of the stock, and thus forming excrescences containing embryo buds. They are separated from the 
trunk by introducing a sharp penknife between the trunk and the uovolo, and so detaching the latter. 
The mother plant suffers no injury from the operation. The uovoli are planted in the same manner as 
bulbs. When raised from seed, the fruit should be treated like haws ; and, though some will come up 
in October if sown in spring, yet the greater number will not make their appearance till the following 
May. Seedling plants have the advantage of never throwing up suckers ; and in Tuscany, where this 
mode of propagation is generally practised, it is said to produce invariably the largest and strongest 
trees. A variety of interesting information on the propagation of the olive, communicated by 
Signor Luigi Manetti of Monza, will be found in the Gardener s Magazine, vol. vii. p. 663., and vol. viii. 
p. 68. ; and the fullest account of the tree and its uses, &c., hitherto published, in the Nouveau Du 
Hamel, vol. v. p. 65. to p. 124. In Britain, specimens of the olive may be found in various gardens in 
the neighbourhood of London, which have stood cut for several years against a south wall without any 
protection. A tree in the garden of Camden House produced a crop of olives in 1790. Some in the 
Horticultural Society’s Garden have stood out eight years against a wall; and one, of a very hardy 
variety, received from the Nikitka Garden, in the Crimea, has stood out some years as a standard, 
without being in the slightest degree injured, even by the severe winter of 1835-6. In Ireland, the olive 
survives the winters perfectly in the neighbourhood of Dublin, but never flowers. In Devonshire, in 
warm places, it passes the winter as a standard; and against a wall bears abundant crops of fruit. 
In general, the more hardy varieties of the common olive may be considered as equally hardy 
with the common varieties of the camellia. 
The Subvarieties of the olive are very numerous. Those in most common cultivation in British 
gardens are, O. e. s. longifolia Ait., Bot. Cab., t.456., and our fig. 1032. ; O.e. s. ferruginea Ait., 
Royle Illust., t. 65. f.1., and our fig. 1033., a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and, according to 
Royle, of the Himalayas, with the leaves rusty beneath; O. e. s, latifolia Ait., O. hispanica Miil., 
Blackw., t.199., which, as has already been observed, is chiefly cultivated in Spain; O. e. s. obliqua 
Ait; and O.e.s. buafolia Ait. Besides these, there are 13 garden varieties of the cultivated olive 


