68 NUTRITIVE PLANTS. 



chiefly in the shape of the leaf, or the size of the fruit. With a 

 little protection in severe frost, it may be maintained against walls 

 in the neighbourhood of Loudon; and in Devonshire it will grow 

 as a standard in more open situations, and is seldom injured by the 

 frosts : but we have not warmth of climate enough to bring the 

 fruit to perfection. 



The olive abroad is easily propagable by shoots ; but the best 

 of bearing trees are reared from grafts on the stocks of olives of 

 an inferior kind. Olive-shoots are ingrafted when in flower : the 

 trees are commonly planted in the form of a quincunx, and in rows 

 at a considerable distance from one another. Between the rows 

 vines are usually planted or grain is sown. Like many other fruit- 

 trees, olives bear well only once in every two years. In England 

 the olive is propagated by layers alone. 



Olives have an acrid, bitter, and extremely unpleasant taste, 

 though pickling renders them less disagreeable; and fashion, that 

 regulates our food as well as our dress, has so long and so generally 

 proposed them as a luxury, that the unpleasantness of their taste 

 is gradually gotten the better of, and even relished by those who 

 are much accustomed to them. The Lucca olives, which are smaller 

 than the other sorts, have the weakest taste ; the Spanish, which 

 are the largest, have the strongest ; the Provence, which are of q. 

 middle size, are usually most approved. 



Olives designed for preservation are gathered before they are 

 ripe. The art of preparing them consists in divesting them of their 

 bitterness, in preserving their green colour, and in impregnating 

 them with a brine of aromatised sea-salt, which very much improves 

 the taste they would otherwise possess. In some parts of Pro* 

 vence, after the olives have lain some time in the brine, they remove' 

 them, take out the kernel, and put a caper in its place. These olives 

 are preserved in the purest oil'; and when prepared, strongly stimu- 

 late the stomach in winter. Ripe olives are eaten without any pre- 

 paration, excepting a little seasoning of pepper, salt and oil ; for 

 they are extremely tart, bitter, and erosive. 



The most valuable part of the olive, however, is its oil. The quan- 

 tity of this depends upon the nature of the soil in which the plant 

 grows, on the kind of olive which is cultivated, on the care taken 

 iu gathering and expressing the fruit, and on the separation of the 

 part to be extracted. If the olives be unripe, the oil will be intole- 



