24 
55. OLE ACE JE. 
in fr. erect ; bracts large conspicuous minutely furry-pubescent 
at the edges, the lowest pair connate subpersistent membra- 
naceo-coriaceous, the upper membranous and quickly falling; 
ovary ovate-oblong, stigma capitate entire oppositely bilobed at 
the Wse; fr. erect large oblong-ovoid al or elliptic. — WB. iii. 
163. t. 186. Picconia excelsa DC. ! viii. 288 ; Seub. FI. Az. 35. 
Olea excelsa Ait. ! Hort. Kew. (ed. 1) i. 14, (ed. 2) i. 22 ; Pers. 
i. 9 ; Poir. Suppl. iv. 139 ; Buch ! 192. no. 169 ; Spr. i. 34. — Tr. 
per. Mad. reg. 3, rr. Wooded ravines and thickets here and 
there a solitary tr. or two ; Bib. da Metade, Serra do Porto da 
Cruz, Bib. do Gato at the head of the Curral das Freiras, Bib. 
da Boa Ventura, Serra d’Agua, Bib. das Fontes at Seixal, <&:c. ; 
also planted in gardens at the Mount, Camacha, &c. FI. Febr.- 
July ; fr. Aug., Sept. — A lofty tr. 40-60 ft. high, with a branchy not 
spreading nor yet bushy head and whitish or pale ash-coloured 
smooth or even bark ; wholly smooth except the fl. -bracts. 
Terminal branches umbellate thickish and alternately com- 
pressed beneath each pair of 1. much as in the common Ash 
( Fraxinus excelsior L.) solid or almost without pith but very 
brittle, rounded downwards and roughened with tumid Hysteri- 
forrn lenticels. Leaf- and fl.-buds large (especially the latter ) 
with valvate caducous scales or bracts. L. regularly decussate, 
2|-3 in. long, f-1 in. broad, very hard and rigid, cymbiform, 
somewhat shining and dark gr. above, paler and duller beneath, 
the side-nerves parallel and little branched, without furfura- 
ceous scales but with a few indistinct remote pores. Petioles 
4-9 lines long, channelled above, very convex beneath. Fl. 
pure w. falling without turning brown, larger than in Olea 
europcea L. and sometimes very fragrant somewhat as in Os- 
manthus fragrans Lour. They grow in loose slightly drooping 
short axillary or axillary and terminal 6-1 2-fid. rac., 1-2 in. 
long, much shorter than the 1., and produced mostly singly but 
sometimes in pairs from each axil towards the ends of the 
branches, and in the latter case one above the other, the upper- 
most thus becoming superaxillary ; rachis and pedic. quadran- 
gular smooth. Pedic. 2 or 3 lines long decussately opposite. 
Br. concavely ovate or ovate-lanceolate smooth but a little 
fringed or cottony at the edges, pale yellowish gr. at first, then 
turning brown, the upper presently falling, the lowest pair or 
two more persistent large rigid brown and subtubularly connate. 
Sep. 4 distinct small ovate obtuse, sometimes minutely fringed 
or cottony at the edges, persistent brown and withered in fr. 
Pet. 2 distinct very deeply bilobed almost to the base, lobes 
long ligulate and undulate, mostly irregularly notched or bifid 
with incurved or recurved tips. Stam. 2 attached to the base 
or claw of the; 2 opposite pet. about half their length and falling 
with them; fil. very short broad flattened; anth. large adnate 
narrow-oblong or lanceolate acute 2-4 times the length of their 
