OLEUM OLTVM 417 



L.^ Australian Manna, which is in small rounded, opaque, white, dry- 

 masses, is found on the leaves o^ Eucalyptus viminalis Labill. It con- 

 tains a kind of sugar called 3Ielitose,- has a sweet thistle, is devoid of 

 medicinal properties and is not collected for use.' 



The substance named Tigala (con-upted into Trehala), from which 

 a peculiar sugar has been obtained,* is the coccoon of a beetle, and not 

 properly a saccharine exudation.^ 



The Lerp Manna of Australia is also of animal origin.*' It consists 

 of water 14, white threadlike portion 33, sugar 53 parts. The threads 

 possess some of the characteristic properties of starch, from which they 

 differ entirely by their form and unalterability even in boiling water. 

 Yet in sealed tubes, they dissolve in 30 parts of water at 135° C. 

 The sugar is dextrogyre ; it impregnates the threads as a soft brown 

 amorphous mass. In the purified state it does not crystallize, even 

 after a long time. By means of dilute sulphuric acid, the threads are 

 converted into crystalline grape-sugar. 



OLEUM OLIViE. 



Olive Oil; Salad Oil; F. Huile d^Olives; G. Olivenol; Baumol; 



Provencer Oel. 



Botanical Origin — Olea europcea L., an evergreen tree,^ seldom 

 exceeding 40 feet in height, yet attaining extreme old age, abundantly 

 cultivated in the countries bordering the Mediterranean, up to an eleva- 

 tion of about 2000 feet above the sea-level.^ Olea. ferruginea Royle 

 (0. cuspidata Wallich), a tree abundant in Afghanistan, Beluchistan and 

 Western Sind, has been supposed to be a wild form of 0. europcea, but is 

 regarded by Brandis ^ as a distinct species. It is not known to have 

 been ever cultivated, yet its fruit, which is of a small size and but 

 sparingly produced, is capable of affording a good oil. 



History — In ancient Egypt the olive was known by the term bdk; 

 it can be traced as far as the 17th century before our era.^" 



According to the elaborate investigations of Ritter" and of A. De 

 Candolle,^- the olive tree is a native of Palestine, and perhaps of Asia 

 Minor and Greece. Its original area also extends over north-eastern 



^ Dillon, Travels through Spain (1780) should refer to the extremely exhaustive 



p. 127. work of Coutance, VOlivier, Paris, 1877, 456 



- Gmelin, Chemistry, xv. 296. pages, 120 figures. 



^ Pharm. Joum. iv. (1863) 108. ** Grisebach states the elevation above 



* Comptes Rendus, xlvi. (1858) 1276; the sea of olive-cultivation thus :—Portu- 

 Gmelin, Chemistry, xv. 299. gal (Algarve) 1400 feet; Sierra Nevada 3000; 



^ Belon, Singularitez (1554) 1. 2. cap. 91 ; do., southern slope 4200; Nice 2400; Etna 



Guibourt, Comptes Rendiis (1858) 1213; 2200; Macedonia 1200; Cilicia 2000.— Z>;e 



Hanbury, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zoology, iii. Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer klimatolo- 



(1859) 178; also Science Papers, 158. gischen Anordnung, i. (1872) 262. 283. 342. 



* Dobson, Proceedings of Royal Society " Forest Flora of North-western and Cen- 

 of Van Diemen's Land, i. (1851) 234; <raZ /nfZi'a, 1874, 307. 



Pharm. Journ. iv. (1863) 108; Fltickiger, " Brugsch-Bey, Reise nach der grossen 



WUtstein's Vierteljahresschrift, xvii. (1868) Oase Kargeh, Leipzig, 1878. 80. etc.— See 



161; Archiv der Pharmacie, 196 (1871) 7; also Joum. of Botany, 1879. 52, 



abstracted in the Yearbook of Pharmacy, " Erdkunde von Asien, vii. (part 2. 1844) 



1871.188. •" 516-537. 



^ Readers desiring full information about ^- G^ographique Botanique (1855) 912. 



the olive tree, its oil, its history, etc., 



2d 



