418 OLEACE^. 



Africa; Schweinfurtli^ regards it as undoubtedly wild on the mountains 

 of Elbe and Soturba in lat. 22 N. on the western shores of the Red Sea, 

 a locality which he visited in 1868. The olive tree has also been met 

 with as far eastward as the country of the Gallas, where it is much 

 appreciated as affording excellent timber.^ It is also stated by Theo- 

 phrastus, that in his time the tree was plentiful in the Cyrenaica, the 

 modern Barca, in northern Africa. 



The olive would appear to have been introduced at a very remote 

 period into north-western Africa and Spain. Willkomm (1876) is of 

 the opinion that it was originally a native of the whole Mediterranean 

 region. 



At the present day it is largely cultivated in Algeria, Spain, Por- 

 tugal, Southern France, Italy, the Greek Peninsula and Asia Minor. 

 In the Crimea the tree grows well, but does not afford good fruit. It 

 was carried to Lima in Peru about 1560 and still flourishes there, and 

 in great plenty in the coast valleys further south as far as Santiago in 

 Chili.=» 



Olive oil is mentioned in the Bible so frequently that it must have 

 been an important object with the ancient Hebrews. It held an equally 

 prominent place among the Greeks and Romans,* whose writers on 

 agriculture and natural history treat of it in the most circumstantial 

 manner. Olive fruits preserved in brine were used by the Romans as 

 an article of food,^ and were an object of commerce with Northern 

 Europe as early as the 8th century.^ 



Production — In common with many important cultivated plants, 

 the olive occurs under several varieties differing more or less from the 

 wild form, the finer of which are propagated by grafting. It is also 

 increased by the suckers which old trees throw up from their naked 

 roots, and which are easily made to develope into separate plants.'^ The 

 fruit, an oval drupe, half an inch to an inch or more in length, and of a 

 deep purple, is remarkable for the large amount of fat oil contained in 

 its pulpy portion (sarcocarp). The latter is most rich in oil when ripe, 

 containing then liearly 70 per cent., besides 25 per cent, of water. The 

 unripe fruit, as well as other parts of the plant, abounds in mannite, 

 which disappears in proportion as the oil increases. The ripe olive con- 

 tains no mannite, it having probably been transformed into fatty oil.^ 



The process for extracting olive oil varies slightly in different coun- 

 tries, but consists essentially in subjecting the crushed pulp of the ripe 

 fruit to moderate pressure. The olives, which are gathered from the 

 trees, or collected from the ground, in November, or during the whole 

 winter and early spring, are crushed under a millstone to a pulpy mass. 

 This is then put into coarse bags, which, piled upon one another, are 



^ Bot. Zeitung, 1868. 860. ' Specimens may be seen among the an- 



2 Amoux, Eevtie des Deux Mondes, Jan- tiquities found at Pompei. 



vier 1879. 381. « Diploma of Chilperic, a.d. 716.— Par- 



* Perez-Eosales, Essai sur le Chili, Ham- dessus, Diplo7nata, Chartce, etc., Paris, ii. 

 bourg, 1857. 133. (1849) 309. 



* Hebn, Kulturpflanzen und Hmtsthiere "^ AVinter, in Pharvi. Joum. Sept. 7, 1872. 

 in ihrem Uehtrganfje aus Asien nach Grie- ^ DeLuca, in Joum. de Phm-rn. xlv. (1864) 

 chenland vnd Italien, Berlin, 1877. 88-142, 65. — Some further researches by Harz on 

 — an interesting account of the importance the formation of olive oil may be found in 

 of the olive in ancient times. the Jahresbericht of Wiggers and Huse- 



mann (1870) 392. 



