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Show 172 EMLGRANT'S GUIDE. .dars. The current of air, by exciting evaporation, .aids the efl'ects pf the cold in both cases. 1\fy reasons for making these observations ia; to prove that the ,olive cannot be made to exist in the interior of the kino-dom · and ihat it is useless to think of cultivating the tree in pl~ces "~'here t~ere is not a single p1ac.e in wh.ich there does not h~ppen, once in SIX or sevon years, -. frost of at lt!ast ten degrees of Reaumer, pre. ceded by rr.tjn and sfl.ow. I have good reason to assert that Provence a~d Langu~~oc, and a par~ of low Dauphiny, is endowed by nature w1th a pnvtlcge that the mhabitants of the other parts of the kina-d m may nvy, but can never obtain. 0 lt is ~re9uently_ repeated, that the olive grow.s best ·On the south al?pe~ of· l11lls; th~s proposition is true in genera], because the in. clm~t1 n of the so1l augmcuts the refraction of the rays of the sun ~n 1 consequently the heat; but if the plain is well sheltered, as it ts fran~ N ~ce to Toulon, the olive will succeea much better than em the htlls, _because the tree fi~ds in the latter a deeper soil, more .ch~rge? w 1tu vegetable a?d anunal matter, ~ince the surface of the pl~t?s IS forooed _by _the rums of the hill, borne down by rains. 1/w g1:eat pomt ~s sheltet·, ~nd t_hat _shelter that retains the great· est q_uant1ty of heat. Tbe sOil of 1tselt only contributes to the beau· ty of the tr~e, or to the quality of the oi] relatively to the species of tr~e, or g_ram of the earth.. It i~ the shelter that secures the duration o the oJtve, and defend~ 1t agamst its most cruel enemy and onl o~s~royer' ~?e cold_; because it i~ only the cold that prevents us frOJ~ gtvmg the tJtle of ~mmortal to this tree. There are yet seen betw~en Toul~l') and Nice beautiftd oJire trees that escapeJ the dreadful wmter of 1709 . \~n.r the olive succ~eJ~ better in rocky, stony, or sandy land, than m argillaceous hard s01l, 1s, because the rocks ston d . d tumul~te mQr h t d ' e, an san ac· . ·h lk ] u e ea ' an ~reserve it longer than does argillaceous, or c a Y an ; and the sap from the former is Jess abundant more ure ~nd more refined, than from more humid soil For th ' p ' aromatic herb h . t • e same reason l . h .I s Iav; more riCil perfume in rocky' or sandy than ip t ow, br tc d so1 . t 1s t. h·e s.a me· w"1t h vt·n es. Wh erever trees i'm bibe a t~~ :n~~ ant~ap, thetr frmts. are defective in quality. You here see fru .t Jet .e hect of the _gram of the earth upon the quality of the --lJ 1 s. IS t e same wtth tl 1· · h 1 le 0 tve as vr1t all other fruits and even g-,. egumes. · , ' 1\fTll he' followirw account of ti 1· · ,-:!_ • J ~ . • Je 0 tve. Is extracted verbatim from 1h I der' s v·a u nf t· s D1c.l ron~a ry ' a u-1 eserve JJ Y esteem'e d work· 'a nu a·s d~matee.cotfto~s ol r pllanlt lllb ~nu preserving the tree was wrot~ for the t 1 •• ng·. 3nc ' t ·1 ey may 0,~..~. o[ grea t use to any persou desi··ous o ma {e expenmeJJ ts Oil the culture of' the olive . A . . ]. where from tl · f 1 m menca m p aces "'ul· ' le ngour 0 I H~ seasons, the tree would demand pel"' tar carep *If this is COI'rect tb f t J . C)f April', 1814, at 0 'el e .ro an dWJ 1J that was experienced iq the beginning illnd the br ncbes ofth~u~~isdewft~l I:a~e destroyed the olive tree. The tl«tWCI'$ . Jlled l- 0 ndia, of the pecel, and even of the oaks, we ·e EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 17j. Olive-characters are; it has a small tulmlous en2palemud (calyx) of one leaf, C'ltt -into four segments at the top: 'J_'he flower consi ts of o_na JJetal which ~·s lubulous, and cut at the bnms wto J our segments, w}nch sore ad open. It has twQ short stamina ter minuted by erect summits, ~nd a ·roundi h gerrnen supportiug a sh01·t s1:ngle style, crotQined b~ a thick bijid stigma. The germen afteru;ard tttrns to an 07Jal, smooth. fruit, (or berry,) with one. celt, enclo_sinfJ, an obl01 r: oval nut. . 'fhis genus of plants JS r:wgeJ m I ournefort's second sectiOn of his twentieth class, which includes the trees and shrub , ·w·ith a jlorver .of one petal, whose poin!el turns to a fruit -with a hard nut. The species are, l.. OLEJl , Jul·ii: lineari -lanceolatis subttts incanis. Olive with li- Dear spear, ~ hnpe d le aves, wbicll are hoary on their l!lnder side. This i. the olea fnJ,C{'ll oulongo rn:inori,*· olive with a smaller oulong fruit, I commonly called Provence oli ve. 2. OLDJl, J ol+i.c; lanr;e olatis, Jruct·n o·uato. Olive with sp ar baped ieaves and egS£ shaped fruit. This is tltc ole,a fructu ma ~cimo. Olive wilh the largest fruit, commonly called Spani sh olive. The first fro st is what the inhabitants of the south of France chiefly .cultivate, h<'c::lllse from tbis species the !Jest uiJ is made, which is a great branch of trnde in Provence and Languedoc ; a!Jd it is the fruit of tbi sort which is most esteemed when pickled. Of thi there arc some varieti es ; the fruit i ca1led olive picholinc : there is another with smaller aud rounder fruit; but thesf? are supposed to I e only acciuental varieties, which have :ni en from the same seeds. I have not enumerated them. 'The oli ve seldom ri se. to a large tree, and is rarely seen with a single stem, but frequently two or three stems rise from the same root ; these grow from twenty to thirty feel high, putting out branches from their siues almost their whole ~ength, which arc covered with a o-ray bark, and g;:uni:hed with stiff leaves about hvo iuches and a half long, and half an iuch broad in the midJJe, gradually diminishing to both ends. 'They are of a lively green ou their upper side, and hoary under, stanuing by pairs opposite. The flowers are produced in small branchf:s from the wing:; of the Jeaves ; they are small, white, and have short tubes spreading open at the top ; these are succeeded by oval fruit, which in warm countries ripen in awtumn. The second sort is chiefly cultivated in pain, where the trees grow to a much 1arf;er size than the former sort; the leaves are muob lar~er anJ not so w-hite on the unuer siJe ; anu the fruit is near twice the size of the Provence olive, but arc of a strong ran1 flavour ; and ~he oil rnade from tlJese is too strong for most Euglish palates. Both these sorls are preserve<.! in the gardens of the curious, but they are rather too tenuer to thri vc in open air: in the neighbourhood of London, where they are sometimes planted against \valls, and with 'a little protection in very severe frost, they are rnaintaineu pretty well ; but in Devonshire there are some of those trees, which havQ ~rown in the open air many years, and are seldom injured by the ~ropt; bttt the summers are not warm enough to bring the fruit rom- nefort, lnst. R. H. 599. Ibid. Q09. I |