154 The Olive Tree. [Sess. 



The olive was originally a native of Asia, but was early 

 transplanted into Africa and Southern Europe. The tree was 

 among the most abundant and characteristic vegetation of 

 Palestine, and nowhere did it succeed better than round the 

 lake of Galilee. Josephus speaks of large dance parties given 

 in Galilee after the olive crop was gathered in. The tree 

 was the glory of the Holy Land, and one of the chief sources 

 of wealth to the peasantry. " The coolness of the pale blue 

 foliage, its evergreen freshness, spread like a silver sea along 

 the slopes of the hills, speak to the Oriental of peace and 

 plenty, food and gladness." In the twelfth century, when a 

 king of Jerusalem was storming a town of Syria, the inhabit- 

 ants refused to surrender until he threatened to cut down the 

 surrounding olive groves, which were their only source of 

 livelihood. The names Olivet — Mount of Olives, and 

 Gethsemane, an oil-press, testify to its cultivation and use in 

 the Holy Land. St Jerome, who lived in the fifth century, 

 speaks highly of the olive groves of Palestine. There was 

 scarcely a part of the country in his day where large groves 

 of olive trees were not found. Owing to its early cultivation 

 and its great age the historical traditions of the tree are 

 numerous. It is spoken of in the earliest parable. A leaf 

 was chosen as a sign to Noah of the cessation of the deluge, 

 and olive branches were ordered to be part of the material 

 of the booths at the Feast of Tabernacles, and became the 

 emblems of peace to various and distant nations. When the 

 vanquished came to ask ^Eneas to allow them to carry away 

 their dead, they brought with them an olive branch. In the 

 Mosaic law an express provision was made for the poor from 

 the produce of the olive, as in the case of gleaning in the 

 fields — "When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not 

 go over the boughs again : it shall be for the stranger, the 

 fatherless, and tlie widow." The owners were to gather the 

 main crop, and the poor were allowed all the fruit left. The 

 greenness of the tree mentioned so often in Scripture is 

 emblematic of strength and prosperity. David compared 

 himself to a green olive tree, and the children of a righteous 

 man to the olive branches round about his table. The tree 

 seldom dies, and when it does fresh stems spring from the 

 root, and the old olive is surrounded by a progeny of suckers, 



