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OLIVE TREE. 
Olea europæa . O . foliis lanceolatis , integerrimis ; racemis paniculatis. 
Since the introduction of the Vine, the Olive seems principally wanting 
to complete the vegetable riches of the United States ; and, probably, it 
might be cultivated with success on some portion of their soil. 
The genus of the Olives, of which one species only is found in North 
America, is more divërsified in the eastern hemisphere ; nine species are 
mentioned by botanical writers, which are natives of remote extremities 
of the Old World. The Olea fragrans grows in China and Japan; its 
flowers are impregnated with the sweetest odor, and are employed by the 
Chinese to perfume their tea. 
But none of these species form an object of great importance in the 
rural economy of the regions to which they are indigenous, nor does their 
introduction promise very beneficial fruits to the agriculture of other 
countries. It is far otherwise with the European Olive. This ornament 
of the vegetable kingdom, which is called by Columella the first among 
trees, has constituted, from the remotest antiquity, the pride of some of the 
most celebrated regions of the globe ; and besides, from the commercial 
value of its products, it is invested, both by sacred and profane history, 
with a thousand interesting associations. 
The beauty of the Olive is far from corresponding to its intrinsic value. 
It varies in size according to the soil and climate in which it grows ; and 
in France the temperature is not warm enough for its perfect development. 
Pliny says that in Spain it was one of the largest trees : JVon alia major in 
Bœtica arbor. On Mount Atlas, Desfontaines saw Wild Olives from 45 to 
60 feet in height; and Beaujour compares the Olives of the plains of 
Marathon to the finest Walnuts for stature and expansion. Lofty Olives 
are still seen in the Island of Corfu, shading the spot where they once 
enriched the gardens of Alcinous. 
In the Olive-yards of France these trees are generally from 18 to 20 feet 
in height, and from 6 inches to 2 feet in diameter. About Aix, Montpel- 
lier, etc., they are kept low partly by the disasters to which they are expo- 
sed from the cold, and partly by the care of the cultivator, to facilitate the 
gathering of the fruit. They ramify at a small height, and form a com- 
pact and rounded summit. The open, coriaceous foliage is of a pale, impov- 
erished verdure, and the general appearance of the tree is not unlike that 
of a common Willow which has been lopped, and which has acquired a 
new summit of three or four years’ growth. 
Vol. IL— 13 
