OLIVES. 



128 



about the .size of a cherry, at first green, then 

 reddish, and lastly black. It then resembles a 

 black-heart cherry ; its taste is insipid, but this 

 fruit is extremely poisonous. The henbane 

 (hyosciamus), bitter-sweet (dulcamara), and se- 

 veral other plants of the same family are also 

 active poisons. 



72. The FAMILY OF JASMI'NEJE, also, belongs 

 to the class of the Hypocoro'llese, and is com- 

 posed of trees and shrubs with, commonly, op- 

 posite leaves ; the corolla of the flower has 

 four or five lobes, but only two stamens (figs. 

 146, 147). We place in it the jasmine, olive, 

 ash, &c. 



73. The Olive Olea europea 

 (fig. 148) is a tree originally 

 from Asia Minor, and 

 the south of Europe, 

 now extensively culti- 

 vated in the southern 

 departments of France; 

 in the East it grows 

 from forty to fifty feet 

 high, but in France it 

 rarely exceeds twenty- 

 five. It is extremely long-lived. 

 Its leaves are opposite, lanceolate, 

 of a bronze green 

 colour above, and 

 whitish below. Its 

 flowers aresmall and 

 arranged in little 

 clusters (fig. 149); 

 its fruit is a fleshy, 

 oval drupe, contain- 

 Fig. 148. BRANCH OF OLIVE. j n g a n ut with a single seed. A 

 symbol of peace, and consecrated to Minerva, this tree was an 

 object of a species of worship among the Greeks, and its destruc- 

 tion was prohibited under severe penalty : it is still cultivated with 

 care, but for other reasons its fruit and its oil. (Olive, or sweet 

 oil, may be said to form the cream and butter of Spain and Italy. 

 Olive oil is made by crushing the fruit to a paste, then pressing it 

 through a woollen bag, adding hot water as long as any oil is pro- 



72. To what class does the family of Jasmi'neoe belong? 



73. What are the general characters of the olive tree ? How is sweel 

 oii prepared? What is the difference between French and Spanish olives f 



Fig. 149. 



OLIVE. 



