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Olea, salicifolia, India. | |
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" dioica, " | |
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" cuspidata, Afghanistan. | |
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" compacta, India. | |
| Asia. |  |
" acuminata, longifolia, India. |
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" roxburghiana, India, eastern. | |
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" heyneana, " | |
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" glandulifera, Nepaul, India. | |
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" acuminata, " | |
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" Europea; North Asia Minor, Syria, Kurdistan, Transcaucasia, North Persia, southern coast of Caspian sea, the southeast of Arabian peninsula. | |
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| Europe. | |
Olea Europea; the Mediterranean coast and Portugal. |
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The Olea Americana is known to the lumbermen of the Carolinas and Florida as devil-wood, the grain of the wood being so hard as to resist ordinary tools.
The berry of the Olea Fragrans of China is candied and used among the Chinese as a sweet, and the flowers to flavor and adulterate the finer kinds of teas.
The above enumeration is given chiefly as a curiosity. The species of interest to us is the Olea Europea, this being the only variety that has as yet repaid man's care by the increased size and weight of its berry. (See Plate I).
The olive (Olea Europea of Linneus), according to De Candolle, belongs to order CXXVII of the Oleaceae, to the tribe III of the Oleineae, to the genus VI, Olea, to the species N. 2, Europea, and was so called by Linneus to indicate that its home is there, that there it is cultivated by choice and has been held in honor from remotest antiquity. Some consider the name inappropriate on the ground that the olive was brought from Asia, but Caruso holds it to be correct because he believes it to be a native of Europe and the culture, only, brought from Asia.
We propose now to endeavor to classify the varieties of the Olea Europea in a brief and comprehensive manner.
It is evident that great confusion exists in the nomenclature of
