* 



Menalcas. 



You win a goat by music? * ' 



* * * * 



* * * Whose sole ambition was to draw 

 The mob in streets to hear thy grating straw. 



Damoetas. 



Howe'er that be, suppose we trial make? 

 I to provoke you more, yon heifer stake. 



* * * * 



Pollio approves, though rough my rural reed, etc. 



The flowers of the Oat have no petals, and are disposed 

 in a loose panicle. The essential character of the Oat con- 

 sists in the jointed, twisted awn, or beard, that grows from 

 the back of the blossom. It is remarkable for the elegance 

 of its panicle, and the flexibility of the fruit-stalk, which 

 turns with the slightest breath of wind. 



The Oat, from its simply graceful growth, is now con- 

 sidered a tasteful ornament for a lady's hair; and, for this pur- 

 pose, beautiful imitations are frequently made of it in gold 

 and silver. 



OLEANDER. 



Nerium. 



JVenwrn this Latin name is derived from the Greek 

 N.) ? .ovj and this, again, from the Greek adjective N>JJO;, sig- 

 nifying humid, or wet, because it grows about rivers. 



[See Jlinsworth; and Schrevelius' Lexicon.] 



Oleander, E. Fr. Oleandre; the plant rosebay. 



Johnson. 



JVertwm Oleander, or common Rosebay, natives of the 

 South of Europe, East Indies, etc. All the species are 

 beautiful tall shrubs, evergreen, with splendid flowers, usually 

 of a rose colour. The white variety is the most tender. 



Oriental travellers have, with great taste and probability, 

 supposed this to be the Bay-tree to which the righteous man 

 is compared by the royal Psalmist. 



The flowers are large and rich, with a calyx in five deep, 

 acute, permanent segments: corolla monopetalous, salver- 

 shaped, contorted ; its mouth crowned with five divided leaf- 

 lets; inodorous; seeds crowned with down. 



All the species are supposed to have a poisonous quality. 

 Ladies would do well, therefore, to beware of applying it 

 to their lips, as is too generally their custom with their bou- 

 quets. 



OLIVE. 



Olea. 



Olea, L. the celebrated t^i* of the Greeks. The word 

 is derived from the Greek \ it , ; , smooth; alluding, probably, 

 to the nature and qualities of the oil for there is no remark- 

 able smoothness about the plant, unless it be the upper sur- 

 face of its leaves. Its value, on account of its oil, has ren- 

 dered it famous throughout all antiquity. 



The Olive was sacred to Minerva. The Athenians held 

 it in such repute, that they ascribed its production to their 

 tutelar deity, Minerva. The famous dispute between Nep- 



tune and her, as to the right of worship in the capital of At- 

 tica, being referred to the gods, it was decided that which 

 ever of the two should give to the inhabitants of the earth the 

 most useful present, should have the patronage of the city. 

 The Olive, produced by Minerva, being the emblem of peace 

 and comfort, was, unanimously, pronounced to be superior to 

 Neptune's Horse the symbol of war and bloodshed. Thence- 

 forth she became the tutelar deity of the city, to which she 

 gave her own name Jlthenee : therefore, it had been called 

 Cecropia, in honour of its founder Cecrops. 



The Olive, as an emblem of peace, is as old as the de- 

 luge. It was a branch of Olive, brought back to the Ark by 

 Noah's dove, which testified that the waters, the ministers of 

 Heaven's vengeance, had subsided. 



I hold the Olive in my hand: my words are 

 As full of peace as of matter. 



Shaks. 



To thee the Heavens, in thy nativity, 



Adjur'd an Olive branch, and laurel crown, 



As likely to be blest in peace and war. Shaks. 



In Rome, a particular sort of coronet, made with Olive 

 boughs, was bestowed in consideration of some signal act of 

 valour. 



The Olive is a remarkably long-lived tree. According 

 to some authorities, flourishing more than five centuries. In 

 France it is asserted, that there are trees which two men can 

 scarcely encompass with their arms. The flowers of the 

 Olive are small, white, slightly odoriferous, and disposed in 

 clusters like those of the currant: sometimes the clusters are 

 almost as numerous as the leaves. Each flower consists of a 

 one-leaf calyx; a monopetalous corolla, divided into four 

 lobes, funnel-shaped. The fruit is called, by botanists, a 

 drupe, (drupa, Latin.) Leaves generally smooth, and of a 

 light green above, whitish and somewhat downy, with a pro- 

 minent rib beneath. 



The Olive is said to be extremely tenacious of life; and 

 it is asserted that, when the trunk has perished by frost or fire, 

 it sprouts anew. And that, even if a bit of the bark, with a 

 thin layer of wood, be buried in the earth, it becomes a per- 

 fect plant 



[See "Michaux's North American Sylva."] 



The ancients relied chiefly upon propagation by slips; 

 an easy and expeditious mode, still generally followed in 

 Spain. 



ORANGE. 



Cirrus Jlurantium. 



(For Citrus, see Lemon.) 



Skinner says, the Orange takes its name from the barba- 

 rous Latin, Jlurantium which denotes its golden colour. 



From aureo (L. ) golden, colore, colour. The aureum 

 malum, or golden apple of the ancients. Johnson. 



We are told that Citrus Jlurantium, China, or Sweet 

 Orange, which first made its appearance in Europe, was sent 

 as a present to the old Conde Mellor, then prime minister to 

 the king of Portugal: but that, of the whole case sent to Lis- 

 bon, there was only one tree which lived, and became the 



