778 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



tained against a wall in the latitude of London." In Devonshire, some trees have 

 stood the open air for many years ; but the fruit does not arrive at maturity. Some trees 

 planted against a w^arra wall at Camden House, near Kensington, succeeded so as in 

 1719 to produce fruit fit for pickling. 



5959. Use. At the dessert, and frequently, also, during dinner, unripe olives appear 

 as a pickle ; which, though to those who taste it for the first time, it appears somewhat 

 harsh, yet it soon becomes extremely grateful ; and is said to promote digestion and 

 create an appetite. Pickled olives are prepared by steeping in an alkaline lessive, to 

 extract a part of their bitter ; they are next washed in pure water, and afterwards pre- 

 served in salt and water, to which an aromatic, as fennel, &c. is sometimes added. The 

 ripe olive, pressed and washed with hot water, furnishes, when skimmed, the well known 

 condiment and corrective, salad-oil, employed both in food and medicine. It may be 

 considered as the butter of Italy and Spain. 



5960. Varieties. In the olive-countries these are nearly as numerous as the sorts of the grape and fig. 

 The French {N. Cours, &c. in loco) describe between thirty and forty sorts. The following are grown in 

 English nurseries : — 



The common I Large-leaved | Broad-leaved | Iron-colored | • Twisted-leaved | Box-leaved. 



5961. Propagation. By seeds, cuttings, layers, suckers, and inoculation. Tlie last mode is adopted 

 where the culture of the olive is conducted with care ; but the olivettes, or olive-plantations, are generally 

 furnished from suckers, which arise abundantly from the roots of old trees. In England, as a green-house 

 plant, it is raised from cuttings ; but where it is intended to grow a few trees in the forcing-department, 

 for the sake of their fruit, we would recommend procuring strong plants from Genoa ; these will produce 

 fruit in three or four years, but the others not for an unknown length of time. 



5962. Culture. Some plants used formerly to be received by the Italian merchants along with their 

 imports of orange-trees, and were planted, like them, in pots or boxes ; but in order to grow the tree for 

 fruit, the modes to be adopted arc either planting as standards in the area, or training on a wall, as recom- 

 mended for the orange and pomegranate. If a house is not devoted to this fruit, one might be appropri- 

 ated for it and the pomegranate ; giving each their respective soils, and recollecting that the olive will not 

 bear a very high degree of heat. 



5933. Soil. The olive will grow luxuriantly in a strong clayey richly manured soil, but will not prove 

 nearly so prolific as in a dry, calcareous, schistous, sandy, or rocky situation ; which ought to be imitated 

 in some degree in the composition prepared for the area or border of the olive-house. 



5964. Temperature. That suitable for the orange will agree with the olive ; but it cannot bear so high 

 a degree of heat as that plant, never being found in Africa south of Atlas, nor in the East or West Indies. 

 It is also easily affected by cold, but not more so than the orange. 



5965. Pruning. The object here is to have a regular distribution of wood of the former year, from the 

 axils of the leaves of which, the flowers spring out. When shoots of three or more years are shortened 

 for this purpose, they do not produce blossoms ; but wood of the preceding or current year may be short- 

 ened, and the shoots proceeding from them will produce blossoms in due course. Ringing, to induce 

 fruitfulness, was practised on the olive so early as the seventeenth century, (fiosc, in 'N. Cours, &c. art. 

 Olivier.) 



SuBSECT. 4. Indian Fig, or Prickly Pear. — Cactus opuntia, L. {Knor. Thes. 1. 1. F. a.) 

 Icos. Monog. L. and Cacti, J. Baguette, Fr. 



5966. The genus cactus consists of succulent plants, permanent in duration, singular 

 and various in structure, generally without leaves, and having the stem or branches 

 jointed, and for the most part armed with spines and bristles. The joints or branches 

 of the C. opuntia are ovate, compressed, and have very small cadaverous leaves coming 

 out in knots on their surface, and accompanied by four short bristly spines. The branches 

 spread near to, or trail on the ground. The flowers come out on the upper edges of the 

 branches in June and July. The fruit is in the form of a fig or pear, with clusters of 

 small spines on the skin, which encloses a fleshy pulp of a red or purple color, and 

 agreeable subacid flavor. It is a native of Virginia and Barbary, but is now natural- 

 ised in the south of Italy, being found on the rocks at Terracina and Gaeta. It was 

 cultivated in England by Gerrard, in 1596, in the open air, but without bearing fruit. 

 It was cultivated in the stove by Justice at Crichton near Edinburgh, in 1750, and 

 ripened its fruit. Miller says, " it will live abroad in England in a warm situation and 

 dry soil ; but in severe winters will be destroyed if not protected from frost>" 



5967. Use. The fruit is sent to the dessert in the West Indies ; and might add to 

 the variety of exotic fruits in this country. Braddick observes (/Zbr-^. Trans, ii. '239.), 

 that in countries where the fruit abounds, it is considered very wholesome, and though 

 the taste of it is not agreeable to all persons till after they have eaten of it several times, 

 yet they soon become very fond of it. 



5968. So7-ts. There are several species of that division of the genus cactus, called prickly pears or figs, 

 which produce edible fruit in their native countries, as the great Indian fig, or upright prickly pear, 

 (C. funa) (Plant, grass 138.); oblong Indian fig {C. ficus Indica) {Reich, vol. ii. 470.); Barbadoes goose- 

 berry (C. pereskia) {Dill. elt. t. 227. f 294.) : the C. opuntia is deemed the most hardy, and by consequence 

 the easiest to fruit in Britain ; but there can be no doubt that the other sorts might also be brought to ma- 

 ture their fruit with very little expense or trouble. They are at present kept in dry-stoves for the sake 

 of variety. 



5969. Propagation and culture. All the above sorts may be propagated from seed or cuttings ; the latter 

 mode is most common. Cut oflf the branches at the joints, in July, or after the plants have done flowering, 

 and let them dry for a fortnight, that the wounded part may be healed over ; then plant in small pots, 

 and plunge in the bark-bed, or in a moderate hot-bed, watering sparingly, giving air to avoid damps, and 

 shading from the midday sun. 



5970. Soil. Miller recommends the following : one third of light fresh earth from a pasture ; a third 



