EEUITS. VARIETIES AND CTJLTUEE. 



381 



tributed in various parts of the Union by the Patent 

 Office. The tree will probably succeed in the low coun- 

 try. 



OLIVE— {Olea Earopea.) 



The Olive is a low-branching, evergreen tree, rising to 

 the height of twenty or thirty feet, with stiff, narrow, 

 bluish-green leaves. The fruit is a drupe, of oblong, sphe- 

 roidal form ; hard, thick flesh of a yellowish-green color, 

 turning black when ripe. The tree is a native of Greece 

 and the sea-coast ridges of Asia and Africa ; it has been 

 cultivated from time immemorial for the oil expressed 

 from its ripe fruit. Where cultivated it answers all the 

 purposes of cream and butter, and enters into every kind 

 of cooking. Unripe olives are much used as pickles, 

 which, though distasteful at first to most persons, become 

 by custom exceedingly grateful, promoting digestion, and 

 increasing appetite. The ripe Olive is crushed to a paste, 

 when the oil is expressed through coarse hempen bags in- 

 to hot water, from which the pure oil is skimmed off. If 

 the stone is crushed the oil is inferior. Lime and potash 

 should be applied as fertilizers, should the soil be deficient 

 in these substances. 



Propagation and Culture. — Olive plantations are gen- 

 erally formed from the suckers which grow abundantly 

 from the roots of old trees. 



It grows readily from cuttings and seeds. Knots and 

 tumors form on the bark of the trunk, which are removed 

 with a knife, or planted like bulbs an inch or two deep, 

 when they take root and form new trees. 



The cultivated Olive may perhaps also be grafted on 

 our Olea Americana, or Devil Wood, which abounds on 



