CHAPTER IV. 



Gasparix. 



"Cet arbre vient sur tons les terraius." 



" And first for heath and barren hilly ground, 



Where meagre clay and flinty stones abound ; 

 Where the poor soil all succor seems to want, 



Yet this suffices the Palladian plant . 

 Undoubted signs of such a soil are found, 



For here wild olive shoots o'erspread the ground 

 And heaps of berries strew the fields around." 



Y IB GIL GEORGICS II. 249. 



The olive will live in almost any soil except a dry and compact, 

 or a humid one. An analysis of the ashes of the wood, leaves, and 

 fruit of this tree s;ive the folio win 2: result : 



Potash 



Lime 



Magnesia 



Sulphuric Acid 



Silicate 



Phosphoric Acid 



Phosphate of Iron 

 Chloride of Potassnm 



WOOD. LEAVES. I ERUIT. 



20.60 

 63.02 

 2.31 

 3.09 

 3.82 

 4.77 

 1.39 

 1.00 



24.81 

 56.18 

 5.18 

 3.01 

 3.75 

 3.24 

 1.07 

 2.76 



53.03 

 15.72 

 4.38 

 1.19 

 5.58 

 7.30 

 2.24 

 9.56 



100.00 400.00 100.00 



The berry, and especially the meaty part, contains a very large 

 proportion of potash, while the wood and the leaves abound in lime. 

 This is an important fact. The deduction from it is that a soil, 

 rich in these ingredients, possesses all the conditions necessary for 



