OLIVE 



OMPHALEA 



2330 



trial scale. Pressing is also done away with in the 

 "Acapulco" method by which the oil is extracted by a 

 partial vacuum. This method is said to be used suc- 

 cessfully in several mills in Spain and Italy. 



Varieties. 



A very large number of olive varieties have been 

 introduced into California, including the principal 

 varieties of Spain, France and northern Italy. Many of 

 these, especially the Italian varieties, are too small to 

 make acceptable pickles and have been in great part 

 abandoned or grafted over with larger varieties. Most 

 of the recent plantings have consisted of Mission, 

 Ascolano, Manzanillo and Sevillano, though about ten 

 or twelve varieties are still found in commercial quan- 

 tities. Short descriptions of the chief of these are given. 



Mission (Fig. 2576). The fruit of the common or 

 broad-leaved Mission is typically olive-shaped, slightly 

 oblique and pointed. Its deep color when ripe makes 

 it suitable for ripe pickles. It ripens rather late and 

 does not fruit nor mature well in the cooler sections. 

 It varies in size from small to large according to soil, 

 climate and cultural conditions. The ripe fruit is very 

 bitter but it is firm and easy to pickle. It is one of 

 the best oil olives among the large varieties, both as 

 regards quantity and quality. More than half of the 

 olives of California are of this variety. 



Ascolano (Fig. 2576) . This variety, the largest of all 

 the olives grown in California, comes from Italy, where 

 it is grown in the province of Umbria. It is regularly 

 ellipsoidal in shape and has a very small pit. It is some- 

 times called the "white olive of Ascoli" because it has 

 very little color even when perfectly ripe. This is con- 

 sidered a defect for ripe pickles but by proper aeration 

 during pickling, it can be made sufficiently dark and 

 the color has the advantage of being very uniform. It 

 maintains its size under most conditions and bears 

 good crops in all the sections where it has been tried. 

 It contains very little bitterness and requires very 

 moderate lye treatment. Its flesh is somewhat tender 

 and this and its large size make special care and skill 

 necessary in preparing the ripe pickles. Many picklers 

 have failed in this respect, but by the proper use of 

 salt from the beginning and careful use of lye, success 

 is not difficult and the pickles when well made com- 

 mand the highest price. Plantings of this variety have 

 been heavy for several years and limited only by the 

 scarcity of nursery trees. 



Manzanillo, Number 1 (Fig. 2576). This olive is of 

 Spanish origin and, as its name indicates, it is apple- 

 shaped. It is deeply colored and bitter when ripe and 

 requires treatment with strong lye, but as it softens easily 

 in pickling great care is needed. It ripens several weeks 

 earlier than the Mission. It is on the average a little 

 larger than the Mission though the largest samples of 

 both varieties do not differ much. Its oil is somewhat 

 inferior to that of Mission both in quantity and quality. 

 Manzanillo, Number 2 is the variety usually pickled 

 in Spain. It is of excellent quality but too small for the 

 Californian market. 



Sevillano (Fig. 2576) . This is the variety from which 

 the largest "Queen" olives of Spain are made. The 

 largest specimens excel the Ascolano in size but it is less 

 uniform. It is of typical olive-shape. It has a large 

 pit and is deeply colored like the Mission. It is partic- 

 ularly suited for making both green and ripe pickles, 

 but its large size makes special care necessary in the 

 process. It is a good bearer in good, rich soil in warm 

 localities but its range of adaptation seems more limited 

 than that of the Ascolano. 



Macrocarpa and Polymorpha, which seem to be 

 synonyms, are very large and suitable for ripe pickles 

 but are liable to a disease causing a spotting or soften- 

 ing of the flesh which much decreases their value. 



Among other large-fruited varieties which have been 

 tried and which have given good results in some sec- 



tions are Obliza, Salonica, Regalis, Empeltre, and Col- 

 umbella. These are not being largely planted now, as 

 they are excelled in most respects by the four preferred 

 varieties. 



Among smaller varieties which under favorable con- 

 ditions produce fruit large enough for pickling are the 

 Nevadillo bianco, Oblonga, Pendulina and Uvaria. The 

 Nevadillo (Fig. 2576) especially was planted largely at 

 one time and under suitable conditions is one of the 

 best oil olives. It is, however, sensitive to cold, subject 

 to dry-rot of the fruit and in many sections an unreli- 

 able bearer. The Picholine, a variety used in France 

 for "olives farcies" gives excellent fruit in California 

 but has been little planted. The so-called Redding 

 Picholine (Fig. 2576), which was largely planted some 

 years ago under the impression that it was the true 

 French Picholine, is a seedling whose fruit is very small 

 and useless. Frantoio (Fig. 2576) is a type of Italian 

 oil olive which does well in California, but is not profi- 

 table, as the fruit is too small for pickling. 



Literature. 



See publications of the Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, Berkeley, California, especially Report for 

 1896, Bulletin Nos. 120, 123, 129, 137, and 158; also 

 Reports of the Horticultural Commission, Sacramento, 

 California, especially the Proceedings of the Olive- 

 Growers' Conventions. Also Bleasdale, "The Olive 

 Tree and Its Products," 1881; Calkins, "Gleanings in 

 Olive-Culture," 1892; Cooper, "A Treatise on Olive- 

 Culture," 1882; Flamant, "A Practical Treatise on 

 Olive-Culture, Oil-making and Olive-pickling," 1887; 

 Lelong, "The Olive in California," 1888; Marvin, "The 

 Olive," 1888. FREDERIC T. BIOLETTI. 



OLIVE-BARK TREE: Terminalia Catappa. 



OLIVERANTHUS (Oliver's flower; named in compli- 

 ment to G. W. Oliver, U. S. Dept. Agric.). Crassu- 

 lacese. A genus of 1 species, Mexican, separated from 

 Cotyledon (or Echeveria), the fls. not strongly 5-angled, 

 very large and solitary, at the ends of slender branches. 

 O. elegans, Rose (Cotyledon elegans, N. E. Br. Oliver etta 

 elegans, Rose), is a caulescent and much-branched 

 perennial, 12-20 in. high, with flat fleshy oblanceolate 

 to spatulate Ivs. closely placed near the ends of the 

 branches: corolla about 1 in. long, bright red with 

 yellow tips, elongated and the lobes nearly free to the 

 base: carpels 5, free. B.M. 7993. G.C. III. 44:275. 

 An attractive summer-blooming plant, with large fls. 

 of good substance borne on rather slender branches. It 

 does very well out-of-doors at Washington, in sandy 

 soil. L. H. B. 



OLNEYA (Stephen T. Olney, American botanist and 

 specialist in Carex). Leguminbsx, One species, O. 

 Tesdta, Gray, a small tree (15-20 ft. and more) in S. 

 Calif., Ariz., and Mex., known locally as ironwood: 

 often spiny: Ivs. equally or unequally pinnate, the Ifts. 

 thick and entire, the stipules none: fls. white or pur- 

 plish, in short axillary racemes; petals free and equal; 

 stamens 10, diadelphous: pod 1-2-seeded, thick, with 

 coriaceous valves, linear-oblong, 1-2 in. long, hairy. 

 Probably not regularly in cult. 



OMALANTHUS: Homalanthus. 



OMPHALEA (Greek for naval or center, from the 

 form of the disk or anthers). Euphorbiacese. Mostly 

 climbing or twining shrubs of the tropics. Juice milky: 

 Ivs. alternate, entire, pinnately veined : fls. in terminal 

 panicles, small, apetalous, moncecious; staminate calyx 

 with 4-5 broad, free, imbricate sepals; stamens 2-3, 

 filaments connate; ovary 3-celled, 1 ovule in each cell: 

 fr. large, fleshy outside. Twelve species in Trop. Amer. 

 and 3 in the Old World tropics. Related to Sapium and 

 Stillingia. Cult, in rich light soil; prop, by cuttings 



