O L E 
OLE 
fruit is a monospermous plum. There are 
seven species ; the most remarkable are : 
1. The Europea, or common olive-tree, 
rises with upright solid stems, branching 
numerously on every side, 20 or 30 feet high; 
spear-shaped, stiff, opposite leaves, two or 
ihree inches long, and half an inch or more 
broad ; and at the axillas small clusters of 
white flowers, succeeded by oval fruit. This 
species is the principal sort cultivated for its 
fruit; the varieties of which are numerous, 
varying in size, colour, and quality. It is a 
native of the southern parts of Europe, and 
is cultivated in great quantities in the south 
of Francd, Italy, and Portugal, for the fruit 
to make the olive-oil. 
2. The capensis, or Cape box-leaved olive. 
3. Olea odoratissima, the flower of which js 
by some said to give the fine flavour to the 
green tea; but Tlninberg attributes the fla- 
vour to the cenrellie seserque. 
Olive-trees are easily propagated by shoots, 
■which, when care has been taken to ingraft 
them properly, bear fruit in the space of 
eight or ten years. Those kinds of olive- 
trees which produce the purest oil, and bear 
the greatest quantity of fruit, are ingrafted 
on the stocks of inferior kinds. Different 
names are assigned by the French to the 
different varieties of the olive-tree; and of 
these they reckon 19, whilst in Florence are 
cultivated no fewer than 32. Olive-shoots 
are ingrafted when in flower; if the opera- 
tion has been delayed, and the tree bears 
fruit, it is thought sufficient to take off a ring 
of bark, two lingers’ breadth in extent, above 
the highest graft'. In that case the branches 
do not decay the first year ; they afford nou- 
rishment to’the fruit, and are not lopped oil 
till the following spring. Olive-trees are 
commonly planted in the form of a quincunx, 
and in rows at a considerable distance from 
one another. Between the rows it is usual 
to plant' vines, or to sow some kind of grain. 
It is observed, that olives, like many other 
fruit-trees, bear well only once in two years. 
The whole art of dressing these trees consists 
in removing the superfluous wood; for it is 
remarked, that trees loaded with too much 
wood produce neither so much fruit nor of 
so good a quality. Their propagation in 
England is commonly by layers. 
Olives have an acrid, bitter, and extremely 
disagreeable taste; pickled (as we receive 
them from abroad) they prove less disagree- 
able. The Lucca olives, which are smaller 
than the others, have the weakest taste ; the 
Spanish, or larger, the strongest; the Pro- 
vence, which are of a middling size, are gene- 
rally the most esteemed. 
When olives are intended for preservation, 
they are gathered before they are ripe. The 
art of preparing them consists in removing 
their bitterness, in preserving them green, 
and in impregnating them with a brine of 
aromatised sea-salt, which gives them an 
agreeable taste. For this purpose, different 
methods are employed : formerly they used 
a mixture of a pound of quicklime, with six 
pounds of newly sifted woodjashes; but of 
late, instead of the ashes, they employ nothing 
but a ley. This, it is alleged, softens the 
olives, makes them more agreeable to the 
taste, and less hurtful to the -constitution. In 
some parts of Provence, after the olives have 
lain some time in the brine, they remove 
them, take out the kernel, and put a caper 
in its place. These olives they preserve in 
excellent oil; and when thus prepared, they 
strongly stimulate the appetite in winter. 
Olives perfectly ripe are soft, and of a dark 
red colour. They are then eaten without 
any preparation, excepting only a seasoning 
of pepper, salt, and oil ; for they are ex- 
tremely tart, bitter, and corrosive. 
The oil is undoubtedly that part of the 
produce of olive-trees which is ot greatest 
value. The quality of it depends on the 
nature of the soil where the trees grow, on 
the kind of olive from which it is expressed, 
on the care which is taken in the gathering 
and pressing of the fruit, and likewise on the 
separation of the part to be extracted. Un- 
ripe olives give an intolerable bitterness to 
the oil ; when they are over-ripe, the oil has 
an unguinous taste; it is therefore ot impor- 
tance to choose the true point of maturity. 
When the situation is favourable, those spe- 
cies of olives are cultivated which yield line 
oils ; otherwise they cultivate such species 
of trees as bear a great quantity of fruit, and 
they extract oil from it, for the use of soap- 
eries, and for lamps. 
They gather the olives about the months 
of November or December. It is best to 
put them as soon as possible into baskets, or 
into bags made of wool or hair, and to press 
them immediately, in order to extract a fine 
oil. Those who make oil only for soaperies, 
let them remain in heaps for some time in 
their storehouses; when afterwards pressed, 
they yield a much greater quantity for oil. 
In order to obtain the oil, the olives are first 
bruised in a round trough, under a mill- 
stone, rolling perpendicularly over them ; 
and when sufficiently mashed, put into the 
maye, or trough, in, of an olive-press (Plate 
Miscel. fig. 177), where aa are the upright 
beams, or cheeks ; b the female, and c the 
male screw ; e, the bar for turning the screw ; 
/, the board on which the screw presses; g, 
a cubical piece of wood, called a block ; h, 
the peel, a circular board to be put under 
the block. Bv turning the screw, all the 
liquor is pressed out of the mashed olives, and 
is called virgin-oil; after which, hot water 
being poured upon the remainder in the 
press, a coarser oil is obtained. Olive-oil 
keeps only about a year, after which it de- 
generates. 
Oil of olives is an ingredient in t he compo- 
sition of a great many balsams, ointments, 
plasters, mollifying and relaxing liniments. 
It is of an emollient and solvent nature; mi- 
tigates gripes of the colic, and the pains ac- 
companying dysentery; and is supposed a 
good remedy when any person has chanced 
to swallow corrosive poisons. • It is an effec- 
tual cure for the bite of a viper; and, as M. 
Bourgeois tel Is us, tor the sting of wasps, 
bees, and other insects. A bandage soaked 
in the oil is immediately applied to the sting, 
and a cure is obtained without any inflam- 
mation or swelling. Olive-oil is of no use in 
painting, because it never dries completely. 
The best soap is made of it, mixed with 
Alicant salt-wort and quicklime. 
OLERON, sea laws of, certain laws re- 
lating to maritime affairs, made in the time 
of Richard I. when he was at the island 
of Oleron. 
These laws, being accounted the most 
O o2 
O N C 20V 
excellent sea-laws in the world, are recorded 
in the black book of the admiralty. 
OLIBANUM, a dry resinous substance 
obtained from the junipems lydia, and 
chiefly collected in Arabia. It is tire frank-* 
incense of the antients. It is in transparent 
brittle masses about the. size of a chesnut. 
Its colour is yellow. It has little taste, and 
when burnt diffuses an agreeable odour. Al- 
cohol dissolves it ; and with water it forms a 
milky liquid. When distilled, it yields a 
small quantity of volatile oil. Specific gra- 
vity, 1.73. 
OLIVE. See Olea. 
OLYMPIC Games, were solemn games, 
famous among the antient Greeks, so called 
from Olympian Jupiter, to whom they were 
dedicated. 
OLYRA, a genus of the triandria order,, 
in the monoecia class of plants, and in the 
natural method ranking under the 4th order, 
gramina. The male calyx is a biilorous and 
aristated glume ; the corolla a beardless, 
glume ; the female calyx is an unitlorous, 
patulous, and ovate glume; the style is 
bifid, and the seed cartilaginous. There are 
two species, herbs of Jamaica. 
OMBRE, a game at cards, played by 2, 3, 
or 5 persons ; in all other respects resembling, 
quadrille. 
OMENTUM. See Anatomy. 
OMNIUM, a term in use among stock- 
jobbers to express all the articles included in 
the contract between government and the 
original subscribers to a loan, which of late 
years has generally consisted oi different pro- 
portions of 3 and 4 per cent, stock, with a 
certain quantity of terminable annuities. 
Those who dispose of their share soon after 
the agreement is concluded, generally get a 
premium of 2 or 3 per cent, tor it, which 
fluctuates with the current prices of the public 
funds; and in a few instances the omnium 
has been at a considerable discount. Some 
of the subscribers pay their whole subscrip- 
tion at the time fixed for the first or second 
payment, and their shares become immedi- 
ately transferable stock : others dispose of 
the several articles which make up the terms 
of the loan, separately ; and in this slate the 
3 or 4 per cent, consols, &c. are distinguish- 
ed by the name of scrip, till the whole sum 
has been paid in upon them. 
OMP1IALEA, a genus of the triandria or- 
der, in the monoecia class of plants, and in 
the natural method ranking with those of 
which the order is doubtful. The male calyx 
is tetraphyllous; there is no corolla; the re- 
ceptacle, "into which the antherae are sunk, is 
ovate. The female calyx and corolla are as 
in the male ; the stigma trifid ; the capsule 
carnous and trilocular, with one seed. There 
are four species, shrubs of Jamaica. 
ONCIIIDIUM, a genus of insects of the 
order vermes mollusca : the generic character 
is; body oblong, creeping, flat beneath* 
mouth placed before; feelers two, situated 
above the mouth ; arms two, at the sides of 
the head ; vent behind, and placed beneath. 
The onchidium typhae, the only species, 
inhabits Bengal, on the leaves of the typha 
elephantina, about an inch long, and three- 
quarters of an inch broad, but linear and 
longer when creeping. In appearance it very 
much resembles a Umax, but differs princi- 
pally in wanting the shield and lateral pore, 
and in being furnished with a vent behind. 
