406 GENERAL REVIEW. 



THE OLIVE FAMILY (Oleacece). 



Trees or shrubs with hermaphrodite or unisexual flowers, 

 and for the most part natives of northern latitudes. The fol- 

 lowing genera are represented in our gardens : Chionanthus, 

 Olea, Phillyrea, Ligustrum (Privet), Myospyrum, Fraxinns 

 (Ash), Fontanesia, Syringa (Lilac), Forsythia, and a few others 

 less well known. One or two species are of economic im- 

 portance, notably Olea europcea, the fruit of which affords 

 Olive or Salad oil, and O. fragrans, the flowers of which are 

 used by the Chinese in flavouring tea. Most of the species are 

 readily multiplied by seeds, which in the case of Olives, Ash, 

 Privet, and Lilac, are freely produced in favourable localities. 

 Cuttings may also be employed, and layering in autumn is 

 successful. Grafting is generally resorted to in propagating the 

 Flowering Ash (Fraxinus ornus) and the Manna Ash (F. rotun- 

 difolia), both of which succeed on the Common Ash as a stock. 

 M. Baltet recommends shield-budding in July or English cleft- 

 grafting in March and April, and observes : " Reject the buds 

 at the base of the branches, they do not develop readily. 

 After budding the tops of the scion, shoots may be utilised by 

 side-grafting them under the bark. When the graft or bud 

 begins to sprout, the stock should be closely disbudded ; but 

 a few leafy shoots should be retained here and there, to draw 

 and keep up the flow of the sap." All the seminal and hybrid 

 Lilacs may be grafted on seedlings of the common kinds. 



De Candolle, in writing on Olive-worts (see ' Essai Me'd.,' p. 

 204, and Lindl. 'Veg. King.,' p. 616), remarks: "However 

 heterogeneous the Olive-worts may appear as at present limited, 

 it is remarkable that the species will all -graft upon each other 

 a fact which demonstrates the analogy of their juices and 

 their fibres. Thus the Lilac will graft upon the Ash, the Chion- 

 anthus, and the Fontanesia ; and I have even succeeded in 

 making the Persian Lilac live ten years on Phillyrea latifolia. 

 The Olive will take on the Phillyrea, and even on the Ash ; 

 but we cannot graft the Jasmine on any plant of the Olive tribe 

 a circumstance which confirms the propriety of separating 

 these two orders." 



Syringa (Lilacs). A group of spring-blooming shrubs found 

 in most gardens, the Common Lilac (S. vulgaris] and the 

 Persian Lilac (S. persica} being the best -known species or 

 types. S. mdgaris and some of its lilac-purple varieties are 

 much used for forcing by the French florists ; and being sub- 

 jected to a humid heat and total darkness, the flowers as- 



