AN OLIVE GROVE 95 



the insect-destroying birds) to the meager 

 manner in which the trees are cared for. 

 Without assistance the olive tree will 

 exist; but without assistance, and much 

 assistance, it will not repeatedly load its 

 branches with fruit. Like several of our 

 finest pippins, the olive demands generous 

 nourishment and tenderest care. Its case 

 comes thoroughly under the saying, 

 "Much love, much service." 



In a certain botanical treatise we read 

 that "the olive is a useful tree, but devoid 

 of beauty." How any student of the 

 natural world could hold such an opinion 

 passeth understanding. Readily we admit 

 that the olive has not the ethereal beauty 

 of the white birch, neither has it the 

 balanced tangle in tracery of the beech, 

 nor the exquisite uplift which has been 

 called "the skywardness of the elm," nor 

 the Gothic dignity of the spruce, nor the 

 noble slenderness of the tallest palms, 

 which in Oriental speech are "like the 

 proud daughters of kings"; but the olive 



