THE OLIVE. 23 



are Colzas." Probably he had been hoaxed, but it 

 was useless to argue the point, so he returned to 

 England under the impression that the coast from 

 Marseilles to Genoa is covered with Colzas ! 



Similar scraps of botanical information are 

 passed from one person to another until they are 

 firmly established. Some gardener, driven to bay by 

 a stranger thirsting for information, invents a name 

 and re-christens the plant on the spot ; or if he is 

 wanting in courage and imagination he simply calls 

 the flower or the shrub by the name of some plant 

 which it resembles. A lady said to me one day, 

 " Don't you like the perfume of that shrub ? it's a 

 Daphne." It happened to be a Pittosporum. Pro- 

 bably this lady's gardener found the word " Daphne " 

 simpler and easier to remember, and it seemed to suit 

 his mistress equally well. If you can count up to 

 eight it is not difficult to make a guess at a Daphne 

 by looking at the anthers. 



The Olive (Olea Europcea, Figs. 9, 10, 11, 42, 43), 

 which clothes the hills and gives its peculiar character 

 to the scenery of the Riviera, is allied to the Ash 

 (Fraxinus), Privet (Ligustrum), Lilac (Syringa), and 

 Phillyrea ; less closely to the Jasmine. In each of 

 these you will find the leaves opposite, and the 

 stamens two in number. The Olive has been grafted 

 on Phillyrea, and even on Ash ; in the case of the 

 Jasmine these grafts do not succeed. This family is 

 sacred in the south of Europe, and sacred also in 

 the north, for the Ash was the Scandinavian Igdrasil 

 or Tree of Life, and the Olive, gift of Athene, 

 was venerated in Greece. 



I am inclined to think that the Oak, though 



