THE OLIVE IN VENETIA. 695 



form of both its leaves and branches, bears only abortive fruit or none 

 at all, and assumes almost the character of a different species, iu this 

 form it is known as the Olea silvatica. Ungrafted or abandoned trees 

 always tend to return to this primitive type. 



In the Veronese olive plantations a number of varieties are distin- 

 guished, resulting from local conditions, by which the plant is still easily 

 influenced. Among these are specially prized the Gosaliva or Prizznr, 

 a low spreading tree, with pendent boughs, long lance-shaped leaves, 

 and small oval fruit, which has the merit of bearing each year regu- 

 larly, not at all certain with other trees; the Brupo forte, taller than 

 the above, with narrower and sharper leaves and fruit, rich in oil, but 

 very delicate and capricious in its product; the Oagnan, likewise a con- 

 siderable tree, with branches less inclined and roundish fruit very full 

 of oil; the tree is hardy, but only bears every other year; the Eosa, 

 Bazza, or Razer, the tallest of its kind, with large pulpy fruit extremely 

 rich in oil, but it bears only in two or even three years, and its oil is 

 only middling in quality. 



For table use, the varieties which give the best fruit are called usu- 

 ally compostar (from compost, French compote, a conserve). These are 

 the compostar simple, a delicate tree with large oval fruit, but very 

 variable in size and quality, according to locality ; the compostar grasso, 

 fruit large and round, more hardy, but, like the above, bearing well 

 only in favorable years ; the compostar di Spagna, fruit oblong, bears 

 only in good years and favorable situations ; the compostar piccolo, 

 thrives everywhere, but inferior iu quality ; and others less deserving of 

 mention. 



Methods of cultivation. — The methods of cultivation and of propagation 

 are simple in the extreme. The plant may be propagated by the talea, 

 a quadrangular slip of the bark, some 3 inches long, with a portion of 

 wood or woody protuberance adhering to it ; or else by a fragment of 

 the trunk, branch, or root, planted in earth well and deeply broken up, 

 with the point only uncovered ; but the tree thus produced would be 

 weakly and short-lived. On the other hand, plants produced from the 

 seed, although the most robust and diirable, give no fruit till twelve or 

 fifteen years old, and are not in full bearing till twenty-five or thirty, 

 while the slow return of the tree is already one of the greatest obstacles 

 to its cultivation. Between these objectionable methods, the usual 

 practice here is to reproduce from polloni, or sprouts, which i-ise spon- 

 taneously from the more superficial roots of the old tree at their first 

 ramification, or from wounds caused by instruments of labor. These 

 sprouts are allowed to grow on the spot to about 3 inches diameter; 

 the root is then uncovered and the bearing portion, with the sprout at- 

 ■ tached, removed to its future locality, the breach being neatly smoothed 

 and covered with a plaster of dung diluted in water before replacing 

 the earth. The sprout, at the moment of planting, is docked at about 

 a foot from the ground, and the cut extrt^uiity covered with a similar 

 156a 20 



