OLEA EUROPJEA. EUROPEAN OLIVE. 
Class II. DIANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, OLEACE^E. — THE OLIVE TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) is a perfect flower, magnified; (6) the calyx, germen, and bipartite stigma; (c) the fruit; (d) the nut. 
The Olive is an evergreen tree growing spontaneously upon a rocky soil, in Syria, Greece, and the north of 
Africa ; and has been cultivated from time immemorial, and constitutes much of the riches of France, 
Spain, and Italy. It is only in favourable seasons, when protected in the same way as the myrtle, by a 
slight temporary screen of straw, or other materials, that it produces its flowers in this country ; but its fruit 
seldom ripens. It has been conjectured by some, that the Olive-tree came originally from Asia, as it is 
found in most parts of Palestine, and actually gave name to the celebrated mount near Jerusalem. 
The Olive is a low tree, rising from twenty to thirty feet, and frequently sending forth two or three 
upright, much branched stems, from the same root, which are covered with a greyish bark. The wood is 
hard and compact ; its colour reddish, and it takes a good polish. The leaves are opposite, two or three 
inches long and about half an inch broad in the middle, nearly sessile, lanceolate, of a bright green colour, 
smooth on the upper surface, pale, and hoary beneath. The flowers are produced in small clusters at the 
axillae of the leaves, on short foot-stalks, and furnished with small, hoary, obtuse bracteas ; the calyx is 
obtuse and four-cleft ; the corolla is white, gamopetalous, spreading, and divided into four ovate, obtuse 
segments. Each flower contains two stamens, which are shorter than the corolla, supporting large pale 
elliptical anthers, and a single slender, erect, style, rising from a roundish germen, and crowned with a bipar- 
tite stigma. The fruit is a smooth oval plum or drupe, of a violet colour, when ripe, having a nauseous 
bitter taste, but abounding in a bland oil, and enclosing an ovate, oblong, rugose nut or stone. 
On the origin of the olive, the Greeks had a fable, which was not only pleasing but instructive. They 
said that Neptune, having a dispute with Minerva as to the name of the city of Athens, it was decided that 
which ever gave the best present to mankind should have the privilege of conferring one. Neptune struck 
the shore, out of which sprang a horse, hut Minerva produced an olive tree, and therefore the preference was 
given to her, because peace of which the olive is the symbol, is infinitely better than war, of which the horse 
was considered a type. The olive branch of Noah we cannot forget. Some have supposed that the tops of the 
olive trees might alone be visible from the place where the ark was then floating, though it is only a tree of 
moderate height ; but if the dove saw a great number of other trees appear above the water, it was natural 
for it to repair to the olive tree in preference to others, because there it had been accustomed to find shelter 
and food. With peculiar propriety the olive leaf, or branch, was chosen by God as a sign to the patriarch 
of the abatement of the deluge, and from this, perhaps, it became the emblem of peace to various and dis- 
tant nations. Thus Milton, in his Ode on the Nativity : — 
But he her fears to cease, I Down through the burning sphere, 
Sent down the meek-eyed Peace ; His ready harbinger, 
She, crown’d with olive-green, came softly sliding | With turtle wings the amorous clouds dividing. 
Captain Cook found that green branches carried in the hand, or struck in the ground, were thus re- 
garded by all the islanders, even in the South Sea. True piety has, also, been beautifully exhibited under 
this figure : — 
“Oh! who could bear life’s stormy doom, 
Did not thy wing of love 
Come brightly wafting, through the gloom, 
Our peace-branch from above. 
Then sorrow, touched by thee, grows bright, 
With more than rapture’s ray, 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 
We never saw by day.” 
Species. — Of the genus Olea there are known about a dozen well marked species, the most important 
of which is the Olea Europsea, now under consideration. In China, the Olea fragrans is much esteemed ; 
its leaves and blossoms are highly aromatic, and are employed by the Chinese at once to adulterate and 
flavour their teas. The name Olea is evidently derived from the Greek appellation, sAai a. Olea is com- 
monly applied to the tree, oliva to the fruit, and oleum to the oil expressed. 
Varieties. — Of the European Olive, there are several varieties, distinguished chiefly by the shape of 
the leaves, or by the size, colour, and form of the fruit. Several of these appear to have been known to the 
ancients ; thus Virgil enumerates three varieties. Cato mentions eight, and Columella ten. The long-leaved 
variety is chiefly cultivated in the south of France, and in Italy, on account of the fine oil which it affords ; 
and the unripe fruit is also highly esteemed, when pickled. The broad-leaved is chiefly cultivated in Spain, 
where the trees grow to a much larger size than the Provence Olive, and yield a larger fruit ; but the oil is 
