2 56 
CULTURE OF THE OLIVE TREE. 
About 20 different kinds of olive are known in this cotuitry at the present day ; 
some of which are esteemed for their fragrance, as Olea fragrans, &c., and others 
for their fruit, as 0. europcea, (figure) and its varieties. 
This last named species has been known, and cultivated for many ages, and from 
very ancient custom the Olive branch has been used as an emblem of peace. It is 
a native of the South of Europe and the North of Africa, where it is very generally 
and extensively cultivated. 
It is supposed to have been carried from Egypt into Attica, about 1556, before 
the Christian Mra. It was first planted in Italy in the thirteenth year of the reign 
of Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. The Romans appear to have paid great 
attention to its culture, and considered it next in value to the vine. 
According to the best authenticated accounts, the olive was introduced into 
England in 1570; and although it has been so long an inhabitant of this country, 
jt is cultivated in but few places, and in these few it is generally grown in the 
green-house as an ornamental plant, for although in its native country this plant is 
extensively cultivated for the sake of the oil extracted from the berries, yet the 
variableness of our climate renders the probability of crops of the fruit very precari- 
ous out of doors, and they are not of sufficient value to grow extensively under glass. 
The oil of olives is contained in the pulp only, and not in the nut or kernel as in 
most other fruits. It is obtained by simple pressure. The olives are first bruised 
by a millstone, and then put into bags, all the liquor is then pressed out by means 
of a press. 
The bags are either made of linen, hemp or rushes, and occasionally woollen ones 
are used, but as these are apt to soon become dirty and rancid, they are notin much 
repute ; linen or rushes are reckoned the best. 
Oil is the main support of commerce in some provinces in Italy. The quantity 
imported into Britain in the course of a year is upwards of 2,000,000 gallons, the 
duty of which amounts to about £75,000. The most valuable is imported from the 
South of France. 
Besides the extraction of oil, olives are used for pickling and preserving ; and 
Gerard in his “ Historie of Plants” enumerates many excellent medicinal properties 
which they possess. It is stated that two glass jars of olives, and olive oil, have been 
dug out of the ruins of Pompeii, both of which were fit for use. 
The olive is readily propagated by seeds, buds, cuttings, grafts and knots. Indeed 
every part of the tree whether root, branch, or trunk, may be turned into plants by 
separation. Cuttings, however, generally bear fruit soonest, although plants raised 
from seeds, become much finer and stronger plants. The cuttings strike very readily 
if planted in light sandy soil, or sand itself, plunged in a little heat and be covered 
with a bell or hand-glass. 
The stove species as O. cerniia, fyc., require the common treatment as other stove 
plants, and the green-house species, as O. fragrans, &c., as other green-house plants. 
