103 
eluding the flies;” but that “the light should enter the room 
on one side of it only ; for if there be a thorough light, either 
from an opposite or side window, the flies pass through the net 
without scruple.” 
139 Olive Tree. Olea Eukop^a. Few vegetables have been so 
repeatedly noticed and enthusiastically described by the ancient 
writers as the olive tree. In all ages it seems to have been 
adopted as the emblem of benignity and peace. It is frequently 
mentioned in the Bible : the ancient Greeks were well acquaint- 
ed with it; and several products of it were employed in medi- 
cine by Hippocrates. Pliny is most diffuse in his account of it. 
Notwithstanding that the olive is now so common in the 
southern parts of Europe, it is supposed by many to have been 
derived from Asia. Pliny tells us on the authority of Fenestella, 
that there were no olive trees in Italy, Spain, and Africa, in the 
reign of Tarquinius Priscus, in the 173rd year from the founda- 
tion of the city of Rome. The Phoenicians are said to have in- 
troduced the olive tree into France 680 years before Christ. It 
is a tree which grows slowly, and may live for centuries ; indeed 
there are some plantations of it in Italy which are supposed to 
have existed in the time of Pliny. Its ordinary height is from 
twenty to thirty feet. The wood is hard and is employed in 
cabinet-work. The leaves stand in pairs on short petioles ; they 
are lanceolate acute, on the upper side of a dark green, on the 
under, whitish. Countries like Provence and Languedoc, where 
the olive is extensively cultivated, have a dull and monotonous 
appearance, from the whitish character of the foliage. Mr. 
Sharpe in the 48th letter from Italy, says he was wretchedly dis- 
appointed to find the hue of this tree resembling our hedges when 
covered with dust. The flowers are small and white ; they form 
axillary compound racemes. The fruit is an ellijitical dark 
bluish ^een drupe, which incloses a very hard kernel (pyrena) 
in which there is usually only one ovule, the others having become 
abortive. The products of this species necessary to be noticed 
are the following. 
140 Products of the Olive Tree. Resin. The older writers 
speak of anexudationfromolive trees, and which Dioscorides de- 
scribes as thetearsof the ^ihiopic olive. In modern times it has 
been improperly termed olive gum. It was formerly employed in 
medicine. Olive Leaves. The leaves of the olive tree have 
152 AUCTARIUM. 139, lo 14*:, .Medical Gazette, fol. 20, p. 375. 
