34 ? 
opposite. The flowers are produced in small axillary bunches; they are 
small, white, and have short tubes, spreading open at top. The fruit is a 
superior berried drupe, of an oblong form, and of a yellowish green colour, 
turning black when ripe: flesh hardish, thick, glaucous: shell bony, ovate- 
oblong, acuminate at both ends, above at the tip marked with two oblong 
lateral calluses, the rest of the surface very obscurely wrinkled; it is thick, 
and divided within into two cells; one of them however is very frequently 
obliterated, one only being fertile, and that lined with a highly polished car¬ 
tilaginous crust. Receptacle filiform, springing from the bottom of the cell, 
and fastened to the side of it, reaching upwards to the seed, and inserted a 
little below the tip into the umbilical scar. Seed oblong, roundish, acumi¬ 
nate downwards, pale dun or straw-coloured.* 
The common mode of making oil from Olives in the kingdom of Naples 
is to crush the fruit to a paste with a perpendicular mill-stone, running round 
a trough. This paste is put into flat round baskets, made of rushes, piled 
one upon another under the press. After the first pressure, scalding water 
is poured into each basket, its contents stirred up, and the operation repeated 
till no more oil can be skimmed off the surface of the tubs beneath. By this 
method the oil is seldom pure, keeps ill, and soon grows rancid. 
Another process is recommended, which is performed by pounding the 
fruit in a mortar. A handful of the crushed substance is thrown into a long 
woollen bag, which is rubbed very hard upon a sloping board, and then 
wrung; afterwards hot water is added, and it continues to be pressed as long 
as a drop of oil can be drawn from it. This is supposed to have been the 
original mode of extraction, and if performed by a skilful stout workman, to 
be much more effectual than the common one.? 
The Olive, in all ages, has been held in peculiar estimation, as the boun¬ 
teous gift of heaven. It is still considered as emblematic of peace and plenty; 
and the great quantity of oil which it produces in some countries, effectually 
realizes the latter of these blessings. 
Unripe olives pickled, especially the Provence and Lucca sorts, are to 
many persons extremely grateful, and are supposed to excite appetite and 
promote digestion. They are prepared by repeatedly steeping them in water, 
to which some add alkaline salt, or quick lime, in order to shorten the oper- 
* Gsertner. 
•j- Swinburne’s Travels, Vol. I. p. 3/3. 
