INTRODUCTION. 



liii 



and Lilac. Twenty-six species of Olive are enu- 

 merated by Don (^^ Gardener's Dictionary"), of 

 which only one, Olea satwa, is cultivated for 

 the oil which it affords. It is said to have come 

 originally from Asia, and grows abundantly about 

 Aleppo and Lebanon. It is also naturalized in 

 the south of France, in Italy, and in Spain. The 

 Olive is remarkable for the very great age w^hich 

 it attains ; some plantations in Italy are supposed 

 to have been in existence in the time of Pliny, 

 eighteen centuries since. It is an evergreen 

 tree, but seldom exceeds thirty feet in height. 

 Its productiveness increases with its age : a 

 modern authoress mentions a tree near Gere- 

 comio, which yielded 240 quarts of oil in one 

 season, yet its trunk was quite hollow, and its 

 empty shell seemed to have barely enough hold 

 in the ground to secure it against mountain storms. 

 The Olive flourishes best on limestone soils, and 

 in the vicinity of the sea. The fruit is an ob- 

 long stone enclosed in a fleshy pulp, ripening 

 in November, when it is of a reddish-purple 

 colour. As soon as gathered, it is placed in a 

 mill, so contrived as to separate the fleshy part 

 without breaking the stones. The pulp thus pre- 

 pared is put into bags made of rushes, and sub- 

 mitted to a gentle pressure ; the liquid w^hich 

 flows off* is pure oil of the best quality. The 

 residue is then beaten up and moistened with 

 water, and returned to the press ; upon which there 

 flows out oil of an inferior quality, mixed with 

 water. What remains after this process is again 

 mixed with water, and set to ferment, after which 

 it is again pressed, and a coarser oil is produced, 

 valuable principally to the soap-boiler. With us, 



