Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/27

Rh given to the world a monograph on the olive which is perhaps the most profound and exhaustive work on the subject that has yet been written. He separates the olive under three heads as: The domesticated olive, the wild olive, the seedling of the cultivated olive; although two only, that of the domesticated olive and wild olive, would answer all practical purposes. The domesticated olive he assumes to have come from the East. The wild olive he believes to be the tree indigenous to all the coasts of the Mediterranean. The seedling of the cultivated tree is virtually a wild olive, as in only one case of a thousand will the seed ever reproduce the variety from which it came, but constantly returns to the wild type.

The following table will show the olives of Italy, France and Spain, grouped in their relative order of merit as oil olives, and it is interesting to note the position assumed by our own Mission in this comparison with the olives of the world.