OLIVES. 201 



CHAPTER XXI. 



OLIVES AND PECANS OLIVES. 



The olive is a low-branching evergreen tree, reaching a 

 height of from twenty to thirty feet ; its leaves are stiff 

 and narrow, of a light or bluish green ; its blossoms appear 

 on the wood grown the previous year, in June, July, or 

 August ; the fruit is a berried drupe, oblong, rather small, 

 of a yellowish green color, but when fully ripe turning 

 black. 



A native of Greece, it became naturalized centuries ago 

 in Spain, Italy, the South of France, Morocco, and kin- 

 dred climates ; in fact, the whole basin of the Mediterra- 

 nean, from the thirty-fifth to the forty-third degree of lati- 

 tude, is one great belt of olive trees. 



This, like the orange tree, attains literally to a "green 

 old age." In the valley of the cascade of Marmora, there 

 is a plantation over two miles in extent of very old trees, 

 supposed to be the identical ones mentioned by Pliny as 

 growing there in the first century of the Christian era. 



In Palestine, here and there, are olive trees estimated to 

 be two thousand years old, and some of these, although 

 their trunks are hollow and like an empty shell, bear boun- 

 tiful crops ; one, a few years ago, yielded two hundred and 

 forty quarts of oil. 



It is a common saying in Italy, " If you want to leave 

 a lasting inheritance to your children's children, plant an 

 olive." 



The olive has been successfully cultivated in California 

 for a number of years ; and if in California, why not then 

 in Florida? As a matter of fact, it has been raised and 

 has fruited in Orange, Hillsboro, Dade, Nassau, St. Johns, 



