. f the principal limbs, is brown, rough, and deeplyfurrowed. In spring and autumn, when the sap is in motion, the bark is easilydetached from the body of the tree. The main limbs are numerously divided,with their branchlets opposite, and in pairs, alternately placed upon conjugateaxes. The foliage is of a pale, impoverished evergreen verdure, but a part of itturns yellow, and falls in the summer, and in three years it is completely spring or early autumn, when the vegetation of this tree is in its greatest activ-ity, the
. f the principal limbs, is brown, rough, and deeplyfurrowed. In spring and autumn, when the sap is in motion, the bark is easilydetached from the body of the tree. The main limbs are numerously divided,with their branchlets opposite, and in pairs, alternately placed upon conjugateaxes. The foliage is of a pale, impoverished evergreen verdure, but a part of itturns yellow, and falls in the summer, and in three years it is completely spring or early autumn, when the vegetation of this tree is in its greatest activ-ity, the young leaves put forth directly above the cicatrix of the former leaf-stalks, and are distinguished by their suppleness, and by the freshness of theirtint. The colour of the leaves varies in the different varieties of this species, butthey are generally smooth, of a light-green above, and whitish or glaucous andsomewhat downy, with a prominent midrib, beneath. On most of the culti-vated varieties, they are from an inch and a half to two inches long, and from. 374 OLEA EUROPiEA. half of an inch to an inch broad, narrow, with both ends acute, even, and entireat the edge, joined to tlie main stem by very short foot-stalks, and opposite,after the manner of the branchlets. The flower-buds begin to appear about themiddle of April, but the bloom is not full before the end of May or the beginningof June. The flowers, which are borne by the shoots of the preceding year, aresmall, white, slightly odoriferous, and are disposed in axillary racemes, some ofwhich are almost as numerous as the leaves, and garnish the tree with wantonluxuriance, while other bunches are thinly scattered over the branches, or areseen only at their extremities. A week after the expansion of the flower, thecorolla fades and falls. If the calyx remains behind, a favourable presage isformed of the fruitfulness of the season; but the hopes of the husbandman areliable to be blasted, at this period, at the slightest i
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