TREES OF AMERICA. 143 



"Uncle Philip, I thought sweet oil came 

 from foreign countries ; I never heard of olives 

 growing in the United States." 



'^ You are quite right, my boy ; it is from 

 the southern parts of Europe that we get 

 our sweet oil, and our olives. But I have 

 described the tree to you, partly because it is 

 so extremely useful, and partly because there 

 is a small tree which is found, although not 

 abundantly, in some parts of the Southern 

 States, and which is no doubt a species of 

 olive ; perhaps it wants nothing but cultiva- 

 tion to become as valuable as the European. 

 It sometimes grows twenty-five or thirty feet 

 high, but not very often ; its general height 

 is eight or ten feet. The leaves are a great deal 

 larger than those of the European olive, but 

 in other respects very much like them. They 

 are evergreen. The olive is round, about 

 as large as a small cherry, of a dark purple 

 colour, and consists of a stone covered with a 

 very thin coating of pulp and skin. They 

 are harsh and disagreeable to the taste, and 

 no attempt has been made to get oil from 

 them, that I know of. In fact, the quantity 

 of pulp on each is so small that there would 

 not be oil enough to pay for the trouble. The 

 wood is heavy and very close-grained, and 



