236 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



the Hebrews of prosperity and the blessing of God. 

 " Happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with 

 thee . . . thy children like olive plants round 

 about thy table;" and it was a green olive leaf 

 brought to the Ark by the returning dove, that was 

 to the Noachian company the promise of better times 

 at hand. The peculiar ashen-green foliage, persist- 

 ing throughout the year, causes an olive-yard to be 

 readily picked out from surrounding trees, even at 

 a long distance; and one to whom the Bible narra- 

 tives are precious, finds in the atmosphere of olive 

 groves even the comparatively young ones of Cali- 

 fornia gardens of sacred memories. The ripe 

 fruit is a bright, glossy black berry, and singularly 

 tempting in looks, but the taste is intensely bitter 

 and astringent, and one wonders that a process to 

 make an olive edible should ever have been discov- 

 ered. Among Californians the prepared ripe olive 

 is generally preferred to the green, and with a rea- 

 son being tenderer and more digestible, as well as 

 exceedingly nutritious. 



That eminence of holy memory near Jerusalem, 

 called because of the abundance of its olive planta- 

 tions, the Mount of Olives, was hardly less famous 

 in ancient times for another tree which is plentiful 

 in cultivation in our Land of Sunshine the fig. 

 This is one of the most majestic of our orchard trees, 



