132 The Olive Tree. 



A week after the expanding of the flower, the corolla fades and 

 falls. If the calyx remains behind, a favorable presage is formed 

 of the fruitfulness of the season: but the hopes of the husband- 

 man are liable to be blasted at this period, at the slightest intem- 

 perateness of the elements, which causes the germ to fall with the 

 flower. Warm weather, accompanied by gentle breezes that agi- 

 tate the tree and facilitate the fecundation, is the most propitious 

 to his wishes. 



The fruit of the olive is called by botanists, a drupe. It is com- 

 posed of pulpy matter enveloping a stone, or ligneous shell, con- 

 taining a kernel. The olive is egg-shaped, pointed at the extremi- 

 ty, from six to ten lines in diameter, in one direction, and from 

 ten to fifteen lines in the other; on the wild tree, it hardly exceeds 

 the size of the red currant. The skin is smooth, and, when ripe, 

 of a violet color; but in certain varieties, it is yellowish or red. 

 The pulp is greenish, and the stone is oblong, pointed and divid- 

 ed into two cells, one of which is usually void. The oil of the 

 olive is furnished by the pulp, which is a characteristic almost pe- 

 culiar to this fruit; in other oleaginous vegetables, it is extracted 

 from the seed. The young olives set in June, increase in size, 

 and remain green through the summer, begin to change color ear- 

 ly in October, and is ripe at the end of November, or in the be- 

 ginning of December. On the wild ohve, five or six drupes are 

 ripened upon each peduncle; but on the cultivated tree a great 

 part of the flowers are abortive, and the green fruit is cast at eve- 

 ry stage of its growth, so that rarely more than one or two germs 

 upon a cluster arrive at maturity. 



On the branches of the olive, and on the trunk of the young, tree 

 the bark is smooth, and of an ashy hue. When the epidermis is 

 removed, the cellular integument appears of a light green. On 

 old trees, the bark upon the trunk, and upon the base of the prin- 

 cipal limbs is brown, rough and deeply furrowed. In the spring 

 and autumn, when the sap is in motion, the bark is easily detach- 

 ed from the body of the tree. The wood is heavy, compact, 

 fine-grained and brilliant. The alburnum is white and soft, and 

 the perfect wood is hard, brittle and of a reddish tint, with the 

 pith nearly efllaced as in the box wood. It is employed by cabi- 

 net makers to inlay the finer species of wood which are contrast- 

 ed with it in color, and to form fight ornamental articles, such as 

 dressing cases, small boxes, ^"c. The wood of the roots, which 

 is more agreeably marbled, is preferred. The olive was classed 

 by the ancients, among the hard and durable species of wood, such 

 as the ebony, the cedar, the box, the lotus. On account of 

 its hardness, it was used for the hinges of doors, and before metal 



