OLEA EUKOPEA OLIVE. 39 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, tough, 

 close -grained, with tine medullary rays, and susceptible of" a very 

 smooth polish. The heart- wood is of a light red-brown color, which 

 does not generally appear, however, until the tree is upwards of forty 

 or fifty years old, and the abundant sap-wood is of a creamy -white 

 color. Specific Gravity, 0.7481; Percentage of Ash, 0.50; Relative 

 Approximate Fud Value, 0.7444; Coefficient of Elasticity, 103081; 

 of Rupture, 991 ; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 663 ; 

 to Indentation, 242; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 

 46.62. 



USES. -- Wood valuable for use in turnery, as for tool handles, 

 mallets, etc., and, as with the eastern Dogwood, for metal -spinners' 

 forms. It is also used to some extent in cabinet making. 



The highly ornamental nature of the tree would suggest its occupy- 

 ing a foremost rank for decorative purposes, but, as if Nature were 

 covetous of its beauty for the fastnesses of the forests which it nat- 

 urally adorns, it is difficult of propagation elsewhere, and though 

 repeated attempts have been made to raise it elsewhere in America 

 and in Europe, they have generally met with failure. 



ORDER OLEACEJE : OLIVE FAMILY. 



Leaves opposite and single or pinnately compound. Flowers monopetalous 

 (rarely apetalous or polypetalous) ; calyx 4-cleft, toothed or entire, or sometimes 

 wanting, corolla regular, 4-cleft (or sometimes 4-petalous, or even wanting alto- 

 gether) ; stamens only 2 (or rarely 4) ; ovary 2-celled with usually two suspended 

 ovules in each cell. Fruit fleshy or capsular. containing 4 (or fewer) seeds. 



Represented by trees and shrubs. 



GENUS OLEA, TOURNEFORT. 



Leaves simple and entire or rarely toothed, persistent. Flowers small, white, 

 fragrant and in centripetal axillary or terminal clusters; calyx small with indu 

 plicate lobes, persistent ; corolla funnel-shaped with valvate lobes and short tube ; 

 stamens 2 or 1, little exserted ; style short and stigma bifid. Fruit a subglobose 

 or oblong oily drupe, with 1-2-celled pit, one cell being often abortive, and fleshy 

 albumen. 



A genus of about 35 species of trees and shrubs mostly natives of Asia and Africa 

 and the name is the ancient Latin name of the Olive tree. 



186. OLEA EUROPEA, LINN.EUS. 



OLIVE. 

 Ger.. Olivenholz ; Fr., Olivier; Sp., Olivo. 



Leaves lanceolate or oblanceolate, stiff, coriacious, 2-4 in. long, mucronate at 

 apex, and gradually narrowing at base to a very short petiole, with entire revolute 

 margin, smooth dark green above, whitish squamose beneath with minute silvery 

 scales ; branchlets angular and hoary-squamose. Flowers in panicles, lobes of 

 corrola valvate in the bud. Fruit an ellipsoidal oily drupe, from about f to 



