THE OLIVE TREE. 



Olea europaea L OLE ACE AE 



Maltese Zebbuga. Italian=0/*V0. French =Olivier. 



This evergreen tree is native of the Mediterranean 

 region and the East, and may be found growing wild 

 or half wild here and there in the valleys and ravines 

 of these Islands. According to the best writers of local 

 history, the cultivation of the olive tree was introduced 

 in these Islands by the first Phoenician settlers, and 

 was largely extended under the Roman and Bysantine 

 domination. It is generally supposed that our olive 

 groves suffered severely from wholesale destruction at 

 the time of the conquest by the Saracens, in the ninth 

 century; but in the fifteenth century our olive groves 

 were more flourishing than ever, and quantities of 

 olive oil were exported every year, so that the Island 

 came to be called "caricator d'olio" or "exporter of 

 oil." The best lands were then planted with olive trees, 

 and villages and towns took their name from the 

 large plantations of olive trees which surrounded them. 

 In the eighteenth century there was a brisk demand 

 of cotton from Spain, with the result that many olive 

 groves growing on the best lands were removed to 

 make room for the cultivation of cotton. It is stated by 

 contemporary writers that 80,000 trees were destroyed 

 at that time, and ' henceforth the cultivation of the 

 olive tree for the production of oil ceased altogether, 

 the remaining olive groves being retained to furnish 

 green or ripe olives to be pickled or salted. 



It is known that the olive tree lives to a great 

 age and it is generally admitted that no olive tree 

 ever dies of old age, but succumbs to wilful or accidental 

 injury, or to some unfavourable change in its environ- 



