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OLIVAREZ OLIVE. 



on Sweden; Sweden renounced Courland; both 

 powers acknowledged the independence of Prussia. 

 In consequence or this, Sweden restored Drontheira 

 and Bornholm to Denmark by the peace of Copen- 

 hagen, May 27, 1660, and concluded the peace of 

 Kardis (1661) with Russia. The peace of Oliva is 

 important because it laid the foundation of the subse- 

 quent political relations of the north of Europe. 

 See J. Gottlob Boehme's Acta Pacts Olivensis inedita 

 (Breslan, 1763 and 1765, 4to.) 



OLIVAREZ, GASPARO DE GUZMAN, count of, 

 duke of Sanlucar, was born at Rome (where his 

 father was ambassador to pope Sixtus V.), of a dis- 

 tinguished Spanish family. The house in which he 

 came into the world was on the site of Nero's 

 palace a circumstance which gave rise to a com- 

 parison of his inflexible severity with the barbarities 

 of that emperor. His father was suspected of having 

 poisoned the pope. If this were the case, he was 

 but poorly rewarded by his court, since his means 

 were so limited that he was hardly able to educate 

 his son at the university. The ambitious youth, how- 

 ever, insinuated himself into the favour of Philip 

 IV., of whose amours he was the confident. The 

 favourite soon supplanted the duke of Uzeda, as 

 prime minister, and, for twenty-two years, his power 

 was almost unlimited. The beginning of his admin- 

 istration was marked by measures of public utility ; 

 but his sole object soon became the extortion of 

 money from the subjects to supply the expenses of 

 the war with the neighbouring powers. His severity 

 occasioned revolts in Catalonia and Andalusia. The 

 Portuguese, disgusted by his government, threw oft' 

 the Spanish yoke, and acknowledged the duke of 

 Braganza king, in 1640. Olivarez communicated 

 the intelligence of this event to the king, as a sub- 

 ject of congratulation, since it justified the confisca- 

 tion of the enormous possessions of the duke in 

 Spain. The 'war, however, was so fatal to Spain, 

 whose armies were defeated by the French, and 

 whose fleets were destroyed by the Dutch, that the 

 king was finally compelled by the public discontent 

 to dismiss his minister. (See Spain.) Olivarez was 

 thus forced to retire from the stage, at the moment 

 when, delivered from his formidable rival, Richelieu, 

 he might have perhaps succeeded in retrieving affairs. 

 He would probably have been recalled, had he not 

 written an apology for his measures, by which he 

 offended several powerful individuals, in consequence 

 of which the king found it expedient to confine him 

 at Toro, where he died in 1645. 



OLIVE (olea Europed). This interesting tree, in 

 the more northern districts, does not usually attain a 

 greater height than eighteen or twenty feet, with a 

 trunk one or two feet in diameter ; but in warmer 

 climates, it rises to the elevation of forty or fifty 

 feet. It grows slowly, and is very long-lived. Not- 

 withstanding the name, it is not a native of Europe ; 

 but it has been so long cultivated on the borders of 

 the Mediterranean, that the period of its introduc- 

 tion from Asia is utterly unknown. In its general 

 appearance, the olive-tree bears some resemblance to 

 the willow, but it possesses very little beauty. As 

 in the other species of the genus, the leaves are ever- 

 green and entire ; they are opposite, lanceolate, from 

 one to two and a half inches long, and their inferior 

 surface is covered with a scaly powder, which gives 

 them a silvery appearance. The flowers are small, 

 white, and are disposed in branching, axillary ra- 

 cemes; the corolla is monopetalous, surrounding two 

 stamens and a single style. The fruit is an ovoid 

 and more or less elongated drupe, with a thin, smooth, 

 and usually blackish skin, containing a greenish soft 

 pulp, adherent to a rough, oblong, and very hard 

 stone ; it is almost the only example of a fruit with 



an oily pulp. Like other plants which have been 

 long cultivated, a great number of varieties have 

 arisen from the influence of soil, exposure, and espe- 

 cially of different modes of cultivation. The clive 

 was celebrated in the mythology of the ancients ; 

 olive wreaths were used to crown the brows of vic- 

 tors. By the Greeks and Romans it was revered, 

 and was considered the emblem of peace and humi- 

 lity. It furnished that oil which, for a long time, 

 was the only kind known, and which was employed 

 by most nations in religious ceremonies. The ath- 

 letes anointed their bodies with olive oil when pre- 

 paring for gymnastic exercises ; and it was very 

 generally used in the same manner on coming out of 

 the bath. The oil is still the principal product of 

 the olive, and is consumed in immense quantities for 

 culinary purposes, in many countries. It is inodor- 

 ous, and the taste is very mild ; but, if taken in large 

 quantities, it is purgative. Great quantities are used 

 in the manufacture of soap ; and in the south of 

 Europe it is burned in lamps. The fruit has too much 

 asperity to be eaten in its natural state, except in 

 one or two varieties ; but after being prepared in 

 various manners, it furnishes an important article of 

 nourishment to the inhabitants of olive countries, and, 

 moreover, makes its appearance on the tables of the 

 rich in almost every part of the globe. The oil, 

 together with the pickled fruit, is the source of a very 

 extensive commerce between the Mediterranean and 

 the north of Europe : in many districts, the whole 

 population is entirely dependent on this branch of 

 business. From the Levant, and particularly from 

 some islands in the Archipelago, immense quantities 

 of pickled olives are exported to the market of Con- 

 stantinople. The oil which is obtained by simple 

 expression, without the use of boiling water, is the 

 best and purest ; and that made in some parts ot 

 France is now the most highly esteemed. 



A temperate and equable climate is essential to 

 the constitution of the olive. Too much heat is as 

 hurtful to it as severe cold. In Europe it has never 

 been successfully cultivated north of latitude 45 ; 

 but it would seem that it is less the intensity than the 

 suddenness of cold after mild weather, that is inju- 

 rious; for the trees have been known to endure 

 very severe cold, and again to be destroyed by an 

 ordinary frost coming on after the sap has begun to 

 ascend. The olive grows in every kind of soil, pro- 

 vided that it is not marshy. It is planted at intervals 

 of twenty or thirty feet, as it requires plenty of air 

 and light. It is easily multiplied by cuttings and 

 pieces of the root, and so tenacious of life that a 

 piece of the bark covered with earth has produced 

 shoots and roots at the end of forty-two days. It is 

 best raised from seed, or from wild plants taken from 

 the woods, which are grafted with the desired variety. 

 The proverb, that " no man who has planted an olive 

 has ever tasted the fruit," though by no means liter- 

 ally true, has arisen from the extreme slowness of its 

 growth. The fruit is ripe about the end of Novem- 

 ber or beginning of December ; but the product is 

 abundant only every other year. The wood is yellow- 

 ish, fine-grained, hard, and susceptible of a brilliant 

 polish. Although highly esteemed, it is too valuable 

 a tree to be much employed in the arts. 



Sixteen other species of olive are known all trees 

 or large shrubs, with opposite, or rarely alternate 

 leaves, and small flowers, disposed in racemes or pa- 

 nicles. Among them is the 0. fragrans, a native of 

 China, Japan, andCochin China: the flowers are 

 highly odoriferous, and are used by the Chinese to 

 mix with and perfume their tea, and also, together 

 with the leaves, for adulterating it. The only spe- 

 cies inhabiting the United States is the 0. Americana, 

 called, in some districts, devil-wood, according to 



