156 The Olive Tree. [Sess. 



the important place it held in the agriculture of his day, and 

 Pliny devotes a whole book to the olive and its products. 



The olive tree is of great economic value. Its wood is 

 beautifully clouded and veined, especially the root parts, and 

 susceptible of a high polish. Although little used by cabinet- 

 linkers now, ancient carvers preferred it for their purpose to 

 all other kinds of wood. The doors and posts as well as the 

 cherubim in the Temple were of olive-wood. One of the 

 chief trades with Jerusalem at the present day consists of 

 chaplets and small toy articles of the common olive wood. 

 Combs are manufactured from the wood of one variety, and 

 rosaries are usually made of the wood and seeds of the olive 

 from Jerusalem. Many authors maintain that the wood of 

 the cross was an olive, and a church called the Holy Cross 

 is said to have been built a few miles from Jerusalem on the 

 spot where the tree for the cross was cut down. The bark 

 is bitter and astringent, and has had a great reputation as a 

 substitute for cinchona. But the value of the olive depends 

 solely on its fruit. This is always very bitter to the taste, 

 and, to render it fit for the table, it is soaked in water im- 

 pregnated with an alkaline salt. After that it is steeped in 

 fresh water for two or three days and then salted for use. 

 Pickled olives are eaten abroad as a whet to the appetite 

 before and during meals, and in this country chiefly at the 

 dessert. They are supposed to excite the appetite and pro- 

 mote digestion. The finest kind of the prepared fruit used 

 to be called Picholine, after an Italian of that name, who 

 first discovered the art of pickling olives. The best pickled 

 olives are from Genoa and Marseilles. In France the unripe 

 fruit of the sloe is pickled in salt and vinegar as a substitute 

 for olives. The oil obtained from the fruit is of far more 

 importance than its use for the table. The oil is procured 

 by pressure from the pulp of the fruit. In pressing, the 

 kernels must not be crushed, as then a disagreeable taste will 

 be imparted to the oil. Olive oil of good quality should 

 be without smell ; but this is not always a guarantee of ex- 

 cellence, since it may be accompanied by a nauseous flavour. 

 The olive crop gets little attention from the peasants ; the 

 land is ploughed more than once a year, but the trees are 

 neither manured nor pruned. From October to December 



