442 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



the South of Europe as astringent in ulcers of the throat and mouth ; Lemery 

 states that a cataplasm of the flowers made with vinegar is beneficial in 

 headache {Diet. 678) ; the other species appear to have the same properties. 

 The leaves and bark of Ligustrum vulgare or Privet are also astringent, and 

 have been employed with success in the same cases as the above. All parts 

 of Syringa vulgaris are very bitter, but the fruit and seeds are the most so ; 

 these have been given with benefit as a febrifuge, and Cruveilhier states that 

 he obtained excellent results in intermittent fevers from the extract {Med. 

 eclairee par Vanat). In the hands of other practitioners this article has 

 failed, and is now never given. 



Olea. — Linn. 



Fig. 198. 



Calyx small, 4-toothed. Corolla with a short tube, and 4-cleft limb. Stamens 2. 

 Ovary bilocular ; style short, stigma bifid or sab-capitate. Drupe baccate, oleo.carneous, 

 by abortion with a single nut. 



A genus of about twenty-five species, peculiar to warm and temperate 

 climates, with opposite entire, rarely dentate, coriaceous leaves. The flowers 

 are generally fragrant, white, racemose or paniculate. One species only 

 affords a useful product, but it is probable that many of the others by culti- 

 vation would be equally important. 



O. europ^ea, Linn. — Leaves lanceolate, entire, hoary beneath. Racemes axillary, 

 dense. Branches angular, not spiny. 



Linn., Sp. PL 11 ; Woodville, ii. 280; Stephenson and Churchill, i. 15 ; 

 Lindley, Flor. Med. 547. 



Common Name. — Olive tree. 



Foreign Names. — Olivier, Fr.; Ulivo, Lt.; Oelbaum, Ger. 



Description. — A small tree, much branch- 

 ed, covered with a grayish bark. The wood 

 is hard and compact, of a dark-yellowish co- 

 lour, susceptible of a high polish. The leaves 

 are opposite, nearly sessile, lanceolate, of a 

 whitish-green colour, smooth on the upper 

 surface and downy beneath. The flowers are 

 in small clusters in the axilla of the leaves, 

 on short peduncles, and furnished with small, 

 obtuse bracts; the calyx is obtuse and 4-cleft; 

 the corolla is white, monopetalous, spreading, 

 divided into 4 ovate, obtuse segments. The 

 stamens are two, shorter than the corolla, sup- 

 porting large elliptical anthers, and a single, 

 slender, erect style, with a bipartite stigma. 

 The fruit is a smooth drupe, of a violet colour 

 when ripe, of an unpleasant bitter taste, but 

 abounding in a bland oil, and enclosing an 

 ovate, oblong, rugose nut or stone. 



There are several varieties of this 

 tree, differing in the size and form of 

 the leaves, and in the magnitude, co- 

 lour and taste of the fruit. It is gene- 

 rally supposed that the olive is a native 

 of Asia, but its cultivation having com- 

 menced before the existence of any de- 



O. europsea. 

 1. Corolla. 2. Calyx. 3. Drupe. 



