264 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



OKDER LV. OLEA'CE^E. (OLIVE FAMILY.) 



T-ees or shrubs with opposite simple or odd-pinnate leaves and perfect and complete or 

 sometime? apetalous and dioecious powers, in terminal and axillary racemes or panicles. 

 Calyx 4-lobed or 4-toothed, mostly persistent, rarely obsolete. Corolla 4-cleft, or of 4 dis- 

 tinct petals sometimes wanting ; aestivation mostly valvate. Stamens usually 2. Fruit 

 various baccate, drupaceous, capsular or samaroid, 2-celled, and by abortion often 

 1-celled and 1 - 2-seeded. Seeds pendulous, mostly albuminous. 



A small but interesting Order. Olives and Olive oil are afforded by the genus (Olea) 

 which is the type of the family, the pericarp, instead of the seed, yielding the oiL The 

 Manna of the shops is derived from a species of Ash. 



FIG. 171. A branch of Enslenia albida. 



