Olea^ 
OLEACEiE, 
219 
stigma capitate or emarginate. Fruit a drupe, with a fleshy mesocarp 
and bony endocarp. Seed albuminous. — Shrubs, with entire coriaceous 
opposite small leaves and abundant minute white flowers in axillary or 
terminal panicles. Distrib. Tropical and warm temperate zones of 
the Old World. Species 35. 
Panicles terminal 1.0. lancea. 
Panicles lateral. 
Leaves lanceolate, distinctly petioled 2. 0. chrysophylla. 
Leaves obovate, subsessile. 
Leaves cuspidate. Calyx-teeth lanceolate . . . . 3. O. macrophylla. 
Leaves obtuse. Calyx-teeth deltoid 4. O. obovata. 
1. O. lancea, Lam. ; DC. Prod. viii. 287. A much-branched shrub, 
4-12 feet high, glabrous in all its parts. Leaves short-petioled, glossy, 
rigid, lanceolate or oblong, narrowed to both ends, 2-3 in. long, 1 inch 
broad at the middle, not lepidote beneath. Flowers in deltoid terminal 
panicles 2-3 in. long, the lower branches from the axils of developed 
leaves ; bud globose. Calyx naked, in. long. Corolla X V in. long, the 
teeth oblong-lanceolate. Drupe juicy, ovoid, acuminate, purple with 
a rugose pointed stone. 
Mauritius, on dry escarpments of the hills, frequent. Rodriguez, on the higher 
parts of the island ridge, (the type and a variety with broader (|— 1| in.) obtuse, 
truncate or emarginate leaves), Duncan ! Balfour! Also Bourbon. Olivier sauvage. 
Olivier du pays. 
2. O. chrysophylla, Lam.; DC. Prod. viii. 285. A much-branched 
shrub, with exactly the habit of 0. lancea , except that branches, 
leaves beneath, and calyx are clothed with bright ferruginous lepidote 
scales, and the small (J-l inch long) panicles spring only from the 
axils of the leaves, the one or two top pairs of the branch being usu- 
ally, but not always flowerless. Leaves lanceolate, glossy, 2 in. long, \ 
in. broad at the middle. “ Drupe globose, with a cusp.” 
Mauritius, on dry escarpments of the Pouce and Pieter-both. Also Bourbon and 
Abyssinia. Olivier de Bourbon. 
3. O. macrophylla, Baker. A shrub, with terete branches, 
glabrous in all its parts except the panicle. Leaves scarcely petioled, 
obovate, rigidly coriaceous, cuspidate, deltoid at the base, 3-4 in. long, 
2-2\ in. broad at the middle, only the erecto-patent main veins visible 
beneath. Panicles sessile, axillary, f- in. long, with a hairy rachis 
and short spreading branches ; bracts lanceolate, pilose, in. long. 
Calyx -fc in. long, pilose, the teeth longer and more lauceolate than in 
the other species. Corolla twice as long as the calyx. Fruit not 
seen. 
Mauritius, Bouton ! (without special station.) Endemic. 
4. O. obovata, Baker. A shrub, with slender terete branches, 
glabrous in all its parts. Leaves nearly sessile, obovate, obtuse, coria- 
ceous, bright green, l\-2\ in. long, 1-lf in. broad, with a broad deltoid 
