180 DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY, 



into barrels and other vessels for shipping to the United States, England, 

 France, Genoa, and elsewhere. The best oil comes from Florence, and was 

 formerly shipped exclusively in glass flaslvs, called Florentine Hasks. 



Use. — The olive is eaten when in an under-ripe state. The taste is bitter 

 and slightly astringent, hence a taste for it must be acquired. The fruit is 

 put up in either glass or wood, and preserved in salt. To prepare it for the 

 table it is soal^ed in water, and afterwards placed in vinegar or oil. The 

 principal use of the olive is for the manufacture of oil. The oil obtained from 

 the olive is esteemed for its soft, delicate Havor, and is largely used for culi- 

 nary purposes and for table use, for salad dressings, etc. It is also an excel- 

 lent lubricator, and valuable for illuminating purposes. It solidifies at 10° to 

 15° Fahrenheit. Its specific gravity is .9176 ; it is frequently adulterated with 

 cotton-seed oil, the specific gravity of which is .9300. 



The wood of the olive-tree is hard, of a fine, close grain, and takes an excel- 

 lent polish ; it is used largely by turners for the manufacture of small articles. 

 The root is esteemed on account of its gnarls and curls. 



Order XXXVI. LOGANIACE^. 



Flowers perfect, regular, in axillary or teriiiiiial cymes ; calyx, with 

 united sepals, valvate in the bud, or 4 to 5 free imbricated sepals ; 

 corolla hypogynous, with sepals united, wheel-shaped, or bell-shaped ; 

 limb 5-10-cleft, sometimes 4-lobed ; stamens on the corolla equal 

 to and alternate with its lobes ; filaments thread-like or awl-shaped ; 

 ovary superior, 2-4:-celled ; style thread-like ; stigma shield-shaped ; 

 ovules numerous. Fruit a capsule or berry. Trees and shrubs. Leaves 

 simple, opposite or whorled. 



No. of genera, 30 ; species, 350 ; mostly tropical. 



STRYCHNOS, L. Calyx somewhat bell-shaped, or wheel-shaped, with 

 4 lobes, whose edges just meet ; stamens 4 or 5, on the corolla ; fila- 

 ments short, attached to the backs of the short anthers ; ovary 2-celled ; 

 style thread-like. Fruit a berry, globular, covering hard, and without 

 valves. Leaves opposite. Flowers in cymes, axillary or terminal, 

 small and white. 



1. S. nux vomica, L. (Nux Vomica.) Stem from 20 to 3.5 feet high ; bark 

 smooth, gray ; much-branched, the branchlets swollen or knotted at the nodes. 

 Leaves 5-nerved, with 2 ribs each side of the midrib, reaching from the base 

 to the apex, ovate, pointed ; calyx tubular, 5 toothed ; corolla tubular, greenish- 

 white, lengthened ; limb 5-parted, parts lanceolate ; stamens 5 ; anthers erect ; 

 pistil longer than the stamens ; stigma globose. Fruit as large as a middling- 

 sized orange, with a hard, bitter, smooth, yellow peel, inclosing fleshy pulp, in 

 which are embedded a number of flat, circular seeds, concave on one side and 

 convex on the other, an inch in diameter, and a quarter of an inch thick, cov- 

 ered with a gray, velvety down, hard and horny, containing a gummy, resinous 

 matter, soluble in alcohol. Wood hard, bitter, and very durable. 



Chemistry. — The seeds yield to the chemist two substances, — strychnine 

 and brucine. 



Strychnine, C^x ^22 ^2 Og- 



Brucine, Cga H21 Ng O4. 



