THE OLIVE IN SICILY. 681 



SICILY. 



REPORT BY CONSUL LAMANTIA, OF CATANIA.. 

 THE OLIVE IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 



It is said that Asia is the olive's native place, and that Cecrope brought 

 it to Athens and the Phocesis to Marseilles (600 years B. 0.). The 

 olive plant is known from past centuries, and a proof thereof is that we 

 find it mentioned in the Genesis, Homer, and in Hesiod. The legend of 

 the pigeon having returned on the Noah's ark with a small olive branch 

 as a sign of peace is well known. It would, therefore, seem that the 

 olive tree vegetated on the land, even before the universal deluge. The 

 ancients paid to the olive great honors, and, as a mark of admiration, 

 they believed that the plant had risen through Minerva's action. Con- 

 sequently, they consecrated it to that deity, and Columella declared it 

 " The first tree of all trees " olea prima omnium arborum est. In Asia 

 nature disseminated the first olive shoot, which afterwards is seen cul- 

 tivated all over Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Syria. The an- 

 cient Hebrews, Etrurians, Greeks, and Romans paid the olive tree 

 divine honors. 



The olive tree likes the sea, the calcareous soil, the mounts and roll- 

 ing hills, as well as the lake borders and river shores. That is because 

 it was diffusely grown all along the coast of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and 

 Palestine, as it is now seen in Greece, not in the interior, but all along 

 the Ionic Islands and Archipelago, Cyclades and Sporandes, still in a 

 wild growing state. 



In what epoch the Greeks did really extract the oil from the fruit 

 and use ifc for illuminating and condiment, as it is done now, it is im- 

 possible to learn, for want of historical records. But one thing is cer- 

 tain, however, that the primitive extraction of oil and its use is lost in 

 the obscurity of night. When, between the seventh and eighth cen- 

 turies, or eight hundred years (B. C.), the Greek colonies extended them- 

 selves towards the northern coast, they probably, with their industry 

 and commerce, imported also the olive culture. 



In the sixth century (B. C.) the olive tree was cultivated in southern 

 Italy, in Sardinia, and in Sicily. The Romans knew the olive later 

 than the Greeks. A century previous to that, we learn from Pliuv, 

 no olives existed then in Rome, but that they did exist all along the 

 Adriatic coast, cultivated by Greeks. Gradually, later on, the olives 

 were introduced into central and southern Italy, hence into this island 

 of Sicily. 



The olive tree is now cultivated in southern Europe, as in Spain, 

 Portugal, and France, Austria-Hungary, Provence, Italy, Greece, and 

 Turkey in Europe. 



Italy is, however, a region of the few most privileged ones by nature, 



