THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 145 
should be “the oak of the magicians.” Other similar references 
may be given, Gen. 12 ch., 6; 13 ch., 18; 14 ch., 13; 18 ch., 1; 
Deut. 11 ch., 30; Judg. 4 ch., 11; 9 ch. 6. 
Olive. (Olea europea). One of the most prominent fea- 
tures of the Promised Land in the various prophecies regarding 
it, is the olive. “A land of vine-yards and olive trees” (Deut. 
6 ch., 11); “A land of oil olive and honey” (Deut. 8 ch., 8); 
“A land of vineyards and olive yards” (Josh. 24 ch., 13). In 
the first recorded parable in the Bible (Judg. 9 ch., 8), the 
‘olive was the tree to which the first offer of rulership over the 
other trees was made. 
‘In the Holy Land there were two sorts of olives, the wild 
and the cultivated. The former grew from seedlings or suckers 
and produced small worthless fruit, whilst the latter was grafted 
and produced good fruit. This explains the reference in Rom. 
11 ch., 16 to 25, “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree, 
which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into 
a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the 
natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree.” 
The olive grows best, not on the mountains, but on the low 
plains, and hence its leaf brought by the dove to Noah, showed 
that the flood had abated from the lands which were capable of. 
cultivation. On account of this the olive branch became the em- 
blem of peace and as such it has been held in veneration by all 
races for ages. The Greek word eliaos, mercy, is derived from 
elaia, an olive. The tree blossoms in June, producing great 
clusters of white fragrant flowers, which fall in large numbers, 
earpeting the ground with white, hence the reference (Job. 15 
ch., 33). “He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and 
shall cast off his flower as the olive.” The Prophets used it as | 
a type of beauty and luxuriance. “His beauty shall be as the 
olive tree” (Hos. 14 ch., 6), and “The Lord called thy name. A 
green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit” (Jer. 11 ch., 16). 
It was customary to knock off the fruit with long sticks, 
but the Israelites were forbidden to go over the trees a second 
time, what remained being left for the gleaners (Deut. 24 ch., 
20), “When thou beatest thine olive-tree, thou shalt not go over 
the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the father- 
less, and for the widow.” 
The timber of the olive was formerly supposed to have 
been used in constructing the Cherubim covering the ark of the 
tabernacle (1 Kings. 6 ch., 23), “And within the oracle he made 
two cherubim of olive-tree, each ten cubits high.” Hence the 
