274.

Materia Medica.

part II.

The olive tree is a native of the south of Europe and thenorth of Africa; but is cultivated in great abundance in France,Spain, and Italy. It has been cultivated in the open air inEngland, but its fruit has never been ripened.' It grows uponthe most rocky soil, seldom exceeds twenty feet in height; andhas a solid, upright stem, covered with a gray bark, and verybranching: the leaves are evergreen, opposite, spreading, nearlysessile, stiff, lanceolate, from two to three inches long, and halfan inch broad in the middle, with the margin a little turnedback; of -a full green colour, smooth and even on the uppersurface, and white or hoary below. The flowers are in oppo-site axillary clusters, half the length of the leaves, on shortflower stalks, with small, concave, obtuse, hoary bractes: thecalyx is deciduous, four-cleft, and regular: the corolla white,four-parted, regular, spreading, with ovate, obtuse, obscurelythree-nerved segments; the stamens are shorter than the co-rolla, divaricated, supporting large pale yellow elliptical an-thers: the stigma bipartite on an erect style, rising from aroundish superior germen: the fruit is a smooth, oval plum ordrupe, about three-fourths of an inch in length, and half aninch in diameter; of a deep violet colour when ripe, whitishand fleshy within, bitter and nauseous, but replete with a blandoil 2 ; and covering an osseous, oblong, pointed, rough nut.

There are several varieties of the olive tree, of which thevariety y or longifolia of Willdenow is most esteemed, as af-fording the best oil. The mode of obtaining the oil from theripe fruit was known very early in Egypt; and it is chiefly forthis purpose that the tree is now cultivated in Spain, Provence,and Italy. To procure the oil, the ripe fruit is gathered inNovember, and immediately bruised in a mill, the stones ofwhich are set so wide as not to crush the nut. The pulp isthen subjected to the press in bags made of rushes, and bjmeans of a gentle pressure the best oil, which is called virginoil, flows first: a second sort is got by breaking the marc,moistening it with warm water, and returning it to the press;and lastly, a very inferior kind is obtained, either by boilingthe magma, or by breaking, moistening, and fermenting it inlarge cisterns, and again submitting it to the full force of thepress. When the olive is not sufficiently ripe, the recent oilhas a bitterish taste, and when too ripe is fatty. After the oilis drawn, it deposits by standing a white fibrous albuminousmatter; from this the clear oil is poured off, and a second de-position takes place; after which, if put into clean glass flasks,there is no further alteration.

I Millar's Gardener's Dictionary, ed. 1797. Art. Olea.

* The unripe fruit, when pickled in a strong solution of common salt, is a well-knownluxury of the table.