298 NATURAL HISTORY. 



abound, the oil is in general use, as it is not expensive. 

 The wood makes handsome cabinet work. The olive, it 

 is said, will live for centuries, and it is supposed that 

 those aged trees, still found on Mount Olivet at Jerusa- 

 lem, are the same under whose shadow the Saviour rested. 

 Two of them measure twenty-five feet in circumference. 

 In the days of mythology the olive was considered sacred, 

 and even in the present time, the olive-branch is every- 

 where recognized as the emblem of friendship and 

 peace, h. 



The Ask (Fraxinus excelsior), one of the highest 

 trees, is slender, branches marked with warts ; bears 

 handsome, light green leaves, very much indented ; flow- 

 ers small, in crowded panicles; buds large and dark- 

 colored. Wood, white and hard, is much valued by 

 coach-makers and wheel- wrights. ] 2. 



The Manna Ash (Fraxinus ornus) ; leaves unequally 

 paired ; leaflets accuminate, oval, lanceolate ; under sur- 

 face downy. Flowers greenish-yellow and of agreeable 

 odor. Native of southern Europe, viz., Calabria. The 

 gum, called manna, which, in the warm season exudes 

 from the bark, is the sweet sap of the tree, dried hard 

 by exposure to the air. The odor of this honey-like 

 fluid is unpleasant, the taste slimy, sweet, and nauseat- 

 ing ; it, nevertheless, possesses some valuable medicinal 

 qualities, and is used as an aperient with children, h. 



The Common Lilac or Spanish Privet (Syringa vul- 

 garis), a large bush twenty feet high ; leaves smooth, 

 heart-shaped, and acuminate ; flowers white or of various 

 shades of purple, stand in dense, terminal panicles ; odor 

 very sweet. It is one of the most beautiful shrubs found 

 in gardens; cultivated everywhere. Native of Persia. 

 Sometimes known as Persian Lilac. 



