OLIVENITE OLYMPIAD. 



301 



Michaux, on account of the excessive hardness ami 

 extremely difficult splitting of the wood. Notwith- 

 standing this quality, it is neglected in the arts. The 

 leaves are broad, lanceolate, coriaceous, entire, and 

 shining. The fruit is a globose drupe, about twice 

 as large as a pea, and purple when ripe. It is a 

 large shrub, or small tree, sometimes, however, 

 reaching the height of thirty or thirty-five feet, with 

 a trunk of ten or twelve inches in diameter. It is a 

 maritime species, and grows in company with the 

 live-oak and cabbage-palm. It is found thinly dis- 

 seminated along the sea-coast, from lat. 37 to Flo- 

 rida, and along the shores of the gulf of Mexico to 

 Louisiana. 



OLIVENITE ; an ore of copper (q. v.). 



OLIVES, MOUNT OF ; a hill near Jerusalem, from 

 which it is separated by the valley of Jehoshaphat 

 and the brook Kedron. It is still, as formerly, cov- 

 ered with olive trees. 



OLIVIER, GUILLAOME ANTOINE ; an eminent 

 French naturalist and traveller, member of the insti- 

 tute and of the agricultural society of Paris. He was 

 born near Frejus in 1756, and studied at Montpel- 

 lier, where he received the degree of M. D., at the 

 age of seventeen. Natural history, and especially 

 botany and entomology, were his favourite pursuits ; 

 and at the age of twenty-three he went to Paris to 

 assist in the composition of a work, relative to the 

 natural history of the district in which that metropo- 

 lis is situated. He was afterwards sent into England 

 and Holland to collect materials for a .general history 

 of insects, and was also employed on the entomolo- 

 gical part of the Encyclopedic Methodiqtte. The 

 revolution having arrested the progress of both these 

 enterprises, Olivier travelled to Persia, together with 

 M. Bruguieres, another man of science, on a diplo- 

 matic mission, planned by the minister Roland, whose 

 death deprived the envoys of the financial resources 

 and official protection on which they had calculated. 

 Olivier returned to Paris in December, 1798, after an 

 absence of six years, during which he visited Egypt, 

 Greece, Turkey, Arabia, Persia, and other Eastern 

 countries. He brought home numerous and valuable 

 collections of curious objects of natural history, of 

 which he published an account in his Voyage dans 

 I' Empire Ottoman, VEgypte, et la Perse (3 vols. 4to, 

 with an atlas and plates.) He died at Lyons in 1814. 



OLIVINE is found in olive-coloured grains and 

 imperfect crystals, whose primary form is a right rec- 

 tangular prism. These crystals are rarely found pos- 

 sessed of numerous modifications and of considerable 

 dimensions. The cleavage parallel to the bases of 

 the prism is highly perfect. Lustre, vitreous ; co- 

 lour various shades of green, as pistachio- green, 

 olive-green, and grass-green ; streak white ; trans- 

 parent or translucent ; hardness between that of 

 feldspar an.l quartz ; specific gravity 3 44. With 

 the foregoing description, the characters given of 

 chrysolite (q. v.) agree in every important respect ; 

 and therefore these minerals are at present conceived 

 to be identical. Those varieties have been called 

 chrysolite which are crystallized, and possessed of 

 handsome colours and a high degree of transparency. 

 According to the best analyses, this species has the 

 following composition : 



Silica, 



Oxide of Iron, 



506 

 40-5 

 89 



Before the blow-pipe, olivine assumes a darker colour, 

 but dors not melt, nor lose its transparency. It may 

 be artificially produced, by mingling its ingredients 

 in the proper proportions, and exposing them to a 

 high temperature. The original locality of imbedded 

 crystallized olivine is not now known ; the crystals are 

 said, however, io come from Upper Egypt and are 



frequently brought to Europe by way of Constantino- 

 ple. Less distinct crystals, and imbedded grains, are 

 found in lava, in various kinds of basalt, &c., as in 

 the neighbourhood of Vesuvius, in Saxony, Bohemia, . 

 Silesia, Hungary, &c. It occurs in large spheroidal 

 masses, which are not pebbles, mixed with augite, in 

 a rock called traptuff, at Kapfenstein, in Lower Stiria, 

 and in Hessia. It is used as a gem of inferior value. 



OLLA PODRIDA; a favourite dish of the Span- 

 iards, consisting of several kinds of meat cut up and 

 stewed together. The same name is also given to a 

 vase of odoriferous flowers and herbs. (See Pot 

 pourri.) It is often used, metaphorically, to denote 

 a medley. 



OLMUTZ, or HOLOMAUC ; a city of Moravia, 

 with 12,890 inhabitants, situated between two 

 branches of the March, thirty-five miles N. ofBrunn; 

 lat. 49 32' N.; Ion. 17 9' E. It is surrounded by 

 extensive fortifications, and contains several religious, 

 literary, and charitable institutions. It is an archi- 

 episcopal see. Olmutz was formerly the capital of 

 Moravia, was captured by the Swedes in 1642, and 

 besieged by the Prussians, without success, in 1758. 

 Lafayette was confined, for a long time, in the pri- 

 sons of the citadel. See Lafayette. 



OLYMPIA; a town in ancient Elis (western Morea, 

 near the town of Lagganico,) where Peregrinus Pro- 

 teus burned himself, to show to the Greeks a new sight. 

 (See Peregrinus Porteus } It is now in ruins. The 

 little plain of Antilala, which measures but an Eng- 

 lish mile and a quarter, from east to west, contains 

 traces of buildings, which Fauvel and Pouqueville 

 consider the remains of the Hippodrome, where the 

 triumphal garland was once awarded. This little 

 plain is bounded on the east by the steep banks of the 

 Cladeus ; on the west of the river lies Miracca ; on 

 the north are hills ; and, on the south, the Alpheus 

 surrounds the valley. Between the Typaeon. a steep, 

 rocky mountain and the Alpheus, to which it 

 reaches, lie the ruins, which have been taken for 

 those of the Hippodrome, though Stanhope does not 

 acknowledge them as such. Towards the south, 

 enclosed by the Altis, lies the*tadium, upon a low 

 and now marshy spot, on the mountain. Pisa was 

 situated six leagues from Olympia ; and, from the 

 agreement of the name of a fountain near Miracca^ 

 called Potistirum, with Potistira, the name of a foun- 

 tain near Pisa, we appear justified in regarding the 

 fragments of architecture at Miracca as the ruins of 

 Pisa. So few are the remains of that Olympia, where, 

 from the time of Choroebus, the names of the con- 

 querors were recorded for posterity with the most 

 scrupulous exactness ! The statue of Olympian 

 Jupiter is treated of in a work of Siebenkees (Tubin- 

 gen, 1795), and in Quatreme're de Quincy's Jupiter 

 Olympien (Paris, 1816, folio). The diligent investi- 

 gations of the learned John Spencer Stanhope (see 

 his Olympia, Topography illustrative of the actual 

 State of the Plain of Olympia . and of the Ruins of the 

 City of Elis, London, 1824, with sixteen beautifully 

 engraved plans and views, after designs by Deinint), 

 appear to have thrown some light upon the field which 

 bears the ruins of Olympia. 



OLYMPIAD ; a period, connected with the cele- 

 bration of the Olympic games, by which the Greeks 

 computed time. (See Olympic Games.) The Olym- 

 piad from which they began to reckon, was, according 

 to Petavius, 777; according to Usher, 772; and ac- 

 cording to Calvisius, 774 B. C. Gatterer, and most 

 of the moderns, call it 776. The last Olympiad (the 

 304th) fell on the 440th year of the Christian era. 

 The interval between two Olympiads was about four 

 of our years, or a Greek tetraetris of forty-eight 

 moons, and two intercalary months. The Olympiads 

 were first named after the conquerors in the games ; 



