The transplantation of fruit-trees from one distant locality to another has been employed by Hume as an argument to prove "the youth, or rather infancy of the world," in opposition to the opinions of those who maintain that this earth has existed, in its present condition, from countless ages:

"Lucullus was the first that brought cherry-trees from Asia to Europe; though that tree thrives so well in many European climates, that it grows in the woods without any culture. Is it possible, that, throughout a whole eternity, no European had ever passed into Asia, and thought of transplanting so delicious a fruit into his own country? Or if the tree was once transplanted and propagated, how could it ever afterwards perish? Empires may rise and fall; liberty and slavery succeed alternately; ignorance and knowledge give place to each other; but the cherry-tree will still remain in the woods of Greece, Spain, and Italy, and will never be affected by the revolutions of human society.

'

"It is not two thousand years since vines were transplanted into France; though there is no climate in the world more favourable to them. It is not three centuries since horses, cows, sheep, swine, dogs, corn, were known in America. Is it possible, that, during the revolutions of a whole eternity, there never arose a Columbus, who might open the communication between Europe and that continent? We may as well imagine that all men would wear stockings for ten thousand years, and never have the sense to think of garters to tie them. All these seem convincing proofs of the youth, or rather infancy, of the world; as being founded on the operation of principles more constant and steady than those by which human society is governed and directed. Nothing less than a total convulsion of the elements will ever

destroy all the European animals and vegetables which are now to be found in the western world."

Several liqueurs are manufactured from cherries. A large black cherry (Merise noire) is used in the composition of the Ratafia of Grenoble; and the Maraschino of Zara is prepared from a particular species of cherry cultivated in Dalmatia. Kirschwasser, which is a cheap spirit, forming a considerable article of commerce, is the fermented liquor of a small black cherry.

The whole of the genus Prunus yield what is commonly called gum; that of the cherry-tree being the best. But this substance, which is called cerassin, resembles tragacanth, (the gum of the Astragalus,) and is therefore improperly called gum, as the term is usually understood and applied to gum Arabic.

There are about two hundred and fifty varieties of cherries cultivated in England.

The Chinese cherry (Prunus pseudo-cerasus) is a valuable new species of that fruit, introduced into this country so recently as 1819. The following is an extract from the account of this variety, presented to the Horticultural Society by Mr. Knight, their President:

"I received a plant of the Chinese cherry from the garden of the Horticultural Society in the summer of 1824, after it had produced its crop of fruit; and it was preserved under glass, and subjected to a slight degree of artificial heat till the autumn of that year. It appeared very little disposed to grow; but produced one young shoot, which afforded me a couple of buds for insertion in stocks of the common cherry. Soon after Christmas, the tree was placed in a pinestove, where it presently blossomed abundantly, and its fruit set perfectly well, as it had previously done

in the gardens of the Society, and it ripened in March. The cherries were middle-sized, or rather small compared with the larger varieties of the common cherry; were of a reddish amber colour, very sweet and juicy, and excellent for the season in which they ripened. The roots of the tree were confined to rather a small pot, and the plant was not even in a moderately vigorous state of growth. I, therefore, infer that the fruit did not acquire either the size or state of perfection which it would have attained if the tree had been larger, and in a vigorous state of growth, and the season of the year favourable."

THE OLIVE-Olea.

The Olive is a stone fruit, or rather a double-celled nut, covered by a fleshy pericarpium.

There is something peculiarly mild and graceful in the appearance of the olive-tree, even apart from its associations. The leaves bear some resemblance to those of the willow, only they are

more soft and delicate. The flowers are as delicate as the leaves; they come in little spikes from buds between the leaf-stalks and the spikes. At first they are of a pale yellow; but when they expand their four petals, the insides of them are white, and only the centre of the flower yellow. The matured wood of the olive is hard and compact, though rather brittle, and has the pith nearly obliterated, as is the case with box. Its colour is reddish, and it takes a fine gloss; on which account the ancients carved it into statues of the gods; the moderns make it into snuff-boxes and other trinkets.

The wild olive is found indigenous in Syria, Greece, and Africa, on the lower slopes of the Atlas. The cultivated one grows spontaneously in many parts of Syria; and is easily reared in all parts of the shores of the Levant that are not apt to be visited by frosty winds. Where olives abound they give much beauty to the landscape. "The beautiful plain of Athens, as seen toward the north-west from Mount Hymettus, appears entirely covered with olive-trees*." Tuscany, the south of France, and the plains of Spain, are the places of Europe in which the olive was first cultivated. The Tuscans were the first who exported olive-oil largely, and thus it has obtained the name of Florence-oil; but the purest is said to be obtained from about Aix, in France.

The particular departments of France in which the olive is most successfully cultivated are those of the Mouths of the Rhone, of the Var, of the Gard, and some others; but it does not ripen its fruit to the north-west of a line drawn from the Pyrenees, near Narbonne, to the foot of the little St. Bernard in the Alps; or in that part of France which may be considered as forming a portion of the basin of the

* Olivier.

Mediterranean, and which is inclosed between that sea and the mountains of Cevennes and the Alps.

The proper time for gathering olives for the press* is the eve of maturity. If delayed too long, the next crop is prevented, and the tree is productive only in the alternate years. At Aix, where the olive harvest takes place early in November, it is annual: in Languedoc, Spain, and Italy, where it is delayed till December or January, it is in alternate years. The quality of the oil, also, depends upon the gathering of the fruit in the first stage of its maturity. It should be carefully plucked by the hand; and the whole harvest completed, if possible, in a day. To concoct the mucilage, and allow the water to evaporate, it is spread out, during two or three days, in beds three inches deep. The oil mill is simple. The fruit is reduced to a pulp, put into sacks of coarse linen, or feather-grass, and subjected to pressure. The oil first expressed is the purest. The oil of the kernel is said to injure that of the fruit, and cause it to be come sooner rancid. The growth of olives and the manufacture of the oil offer a considerable employment to many of the inhabitants of France and Italy. The importation of olive oil into Great Britain amounted, in 1827, to about four thousand five hundred tuns, paying a duty of eight guineas per tun.

The olive grows in England; though, in the severity of our winters, it changes its character. In the south, it is an evergreen; but in England, it loses its leaves. Indeed, it needs protection even in the mildest winters; and it is only in the very warmest summers that it will produce fruit a little, which does not ripen, and is of very slight flavour.

In ancient times, especially, the olive was a tree held in the greatest veneration, for then the oil was

* Hillhouse on the Olive Tree.