374 OLEA EUROP-EA. 
half of an inch to an inch broad, narrow, with both ends acute, even, and entire 
at the edge, joined to the main stem by very short foot-stalks, and opposite, 
after the manner of the branchlets. The flower-buds begin to appear about the 
middle of April, but the bloom is not full before the end of May or the beginning 
of June. The flowers, which are borne by the shoots of the preceding year, are 
small, white, slightly odoriferous, and are disposed in axillary racemes, some of 
which are almost as numerous as the leaves, and garnish the tree with wanton 
luxuriance, while other bunches are thinly scattered over the branches, or are 
seen only at their extremities. A week after the expansion of the flower, the 
corolla fades and falls. If the calyx remains behind, a favourable presage is 
formed of the fruitfulness of the season ; but the hopes of the husbandman are 
liable to be blasted, at this period, at the slightest intemperateness of the ele- 
ments, which causes the germ to fall with the flower ; whereas, warm weather, 
accompanied by gentle breezes that agitate the tree and facilitate the fecundation, 
is most propitious to his wishes. The fruit of the olive is egg-shaped, pointed at 
the extremity, and is usually from a half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter, 
in one direction, and from three-fourths of an inch to an inch and a half in the 
other; but, on wild trees, it scarcely exceeds the size of a common currant. The 
skin is smooth, and generally of a violet colour, when ripe ; but in certain varie- 
ties, it is of various shades of red, yellow, and black. The pulp is greenish, con- 
taining an oblong, pointed stone, divided into two cells, one of which is usually 
void. The oil of the olive is furnished by the pulp, which is a characteristic 
almost peculiar to this fruit, and that of the Cornus mas. and purpurea, being 
extracted from the seeds of other oleaginous vegetables. The young olives 
set in June; increase in size, and remain green during the summer; begin to 
change colour early in October ; and are ripe at the end of November, or by the 
beginning of December. On the wild olive, five or six fruits are ripened upon 
each peduncle ; but on the cultivated tree a great part of the flowers prove abor- 
tive, and the green fruit is cast at every stage of its growth, so that rarely more 
than one or two germs upon a cluster arrive at maturity. 
Varieties. The olive, like many other kinds of fruit, has, by long cultivation, 
become exceedingly multiplied in its varieties, which may be considered as more 
or less accidental or temporary. From the extensive distribution and long culti- 
vation of this tree, it is utterly impossible to trace the multitude of cultivated 
sorts to their original form. The wild, thorny olive, (Olea oleaster,) indigenous 
to Spain, Portugal, the south of France, and Italy is thought by some, to bear 
the same relation to the cultivated olive, as the crab does to the apple, and the 
pyraster to the pear. The following varieties, however, appear to be suffi- 
ciently distinct, the first of which, may be considered as the normal form of the 
species : 
1. O. e. longifolia, Loudon. Long-leaved European Olive-tree; Olea europcea, 
ofMichaux; Olivier a" Europe, of the French; Langbldttriger Qehlbaum, of the 
Germans. This variety is that which is principally cultivated in France and 
Italy, and answers to the general description at the commencement of this article. 
2. O. e. latifolia, Loudon. Broad-leaved European Olive-tree; Olea hispan- 
ica, of Blackwell, in Miller's Dictionary; Olivier d'Espagne, of the French; 
Breitbldttriger Oehlbaum, of the Germans. This variety is chiefly cultivated in 
Spain, the fruit of which is nearly double the size of the common olive of Pro- 
vence or Italy ; but the oil made from it is too rank in flavour for most palates. 
3. O. e. ferruginea, Loudon. Ferruginous-leaved European Olive-tree, a native 
of the Cape of Good Hope, and, according to Mr. Royle, of the Himalayas, with 
the leaves narrow, acute at both ends, and rusty beneath. 
4. O. e. curvifolia. Twisted-leaved European Olive-tree; Olivier a feuilles 
torses, of the French, with oblong leaves bent obliquely, and pale beneath. 
