356 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, aged olive-trees, of most immense size, covered 
■ with fruit, almost in a mature state : from this 
circumstance we were unable to examine or to 
collect blossoms from any of those trees, and 
are yet ignorant of their specific nature. That 
the olive oi Jerusalem is of the same species with 
the European olive, we do not absolutely affirm ; 
the leaves being considerably broader, and 
more silvery underneath than in any, either of 
the wild or cultivated varieties, which we have 
seen\ We provided ourselves with specimens 
from these trees for our herbarium ; and have 
found few things more gratifying than were 
these trifles, as presents to those friends who 
wished to obtain memorials from the Holi/ Land. 
It is truly a curious and interesting fact, that, 
during a period of little more than two thousand 
years, Hehreius, Assyrians, Romans, Moslems, and 
Christians, have been successively in possession 
of the rocky mountains of Palcestine; yet the 
olive still vindicates its paternal soil, and is 
found, at this day, upon the same spot ^ which 
(1) It is highly probable that the supposed varieties of Olea 
EuROPSA, at present enumerated in the Species Plantarum, include 
several distinct species. 
(2) " Quis enim dubitet Montem Oliviferum ilium esse qui nunc 
illo nomine dicitur ? Et si quis dubitet, omnia loca adsita et valles et 
fontes et rivi abund^ ostendent nulli alii monti prseter hunc ea con- 
venire quje de Monte Olivifero veteres tradiderunt." Reland. Palast. 
lUust. lib. i. c. 4. torn. 1. p. 22. Traj.Bat. 1714. 
