452 OLEACE.3E. 



pendulous ; style 1 or ; stigma entire or bifid. Fruit drupaceous, 

 baccate or capsular, sometimes samaroid (fig. 437). Seeds often by 

 abortion solitary ; albumen dense, fleshy, abundant ; embryo straight, 

 about half the length of the albumen ; cotyledons leafy ; radicle 

 superior. Trees or shrubs, with opposite leaves (fig. 254), which are 

 either simple or compound. Found chiefly in temperate regions. 

 They occur in North America, Asia, Europe, and New Holland. 

 There are two sections of the order: 1. Olese, with a drupaceous or 

 berried fruit. 2. Fraxinese, with a samaroid (winged) fruit. Lindley 

 mentions 24 genera, including 130 species. Examples Olea, Ligus- 

 trum, Fraxinus, Syringa. 



941. The plants of the order are bitter, tonic, and astringent, and 

 some yield fixed oil. Olea europcea is the Olive-tree, the m of the 

 Bible, the &/ of the Greeks. It grows naturally on the coast of 

 the Mediterranean, and is cultivated in many parts of the south of 

 Europe. There are several varieties of the plant, two of which have 

 been long distinguished the wild and cultivated. The former is an 

 evergreen shrub or low tree, with spiny branches and round twigs ; 

 the latter is a taller tree, without spines, and with four-angled twigs. 

 The fruit is a drupe, about the size and colour of a damson. Its fleshy 

 pericarp yields by expression olive oil, of which the finest comes from 

 Provence and Florence. It consists of two oleaginous principles 

 Margarin and Elain. Olive oil has nutrient, emollient, and laxative 

 properties. It is used in forming ointments, liniments, and plasters. 

 The bark of the Olive-tree has been used as a tonic ; and a resinous 

 exudation from it, called Olivile, or Olive-gum, or Lecca-gum, is em- 

 ployed in the same way. Spanish or Castile soap is made by mixing 

 olive oil and soda, while soft soap is made by mixing the oil with 

 potash. The flowers of Olea fragrans, the Lan-hoa of the Chinese, are 

 used to perfume teas. Several species of Ornus, more particularly 

 0. rotundifolia and 0. europcea, yield a sweet exudation called Manna, 

 a substance completely different from the p (manna) of the Bible, on 

 which the Israelites fed. The Manna or Flowering Ash is a native 

 of southern Europe, and grows abundantly in the south of Italy and 

 Sicily, whence the Manna of commerce is imported. The tree attains 

 a height of 20 or 30 feet, and it has a fine appearance when its clusters 

 of white flowers are produced. There is a very fine Manna-ash in the 

 Edinburgh Botanic Garden. Manna is the concrete juice of the tree, 

 which flows out after incisions or insect punctures. It contains a 

 peculiar sweet principle called Mannite. Manna is nutritive and laxa- 

 tive, and is sometimes administered to infants and young children, on 

 account of the mildness of its action. Syringa vulgaris, common Lilac, 

 has a febrifuge bark. Fraxinus excelsior, the common Ash, is one of 

 the trees which comes late into leaf, and the leaves of which fall off 

 early in autumn. Some specimens attain the height of 70, 90, or 



