Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/41

Rh The berries are as large and fleshy as the Grossajo, but not so rich in oil. It matures toward the end of November, turning black in color. This is decidedly the olive to be cultivated where frost is most frequent and dangerous.

This olive has erect twigs, but shorter, less robust and more subdivided than the Leccino; wherefore it forms its top less open, and has a tendency to grow more upward. It is a middle-sized tree, with leaves like those of the Leccino in form. It flowers rather fully and holds on tenaciously to its fruit, carrying to ripeness a goodly number of berries, which are in clusters of two, three and four, on peduncles leaved as are the Leccino. The berries, however, do not cling to the stem as tightly as the Leccino. These are ovate, and so pointed as to give the name of Puntarolo. They have less flesh than the Leccino and contain less oil, mature as late as the Gremignolo, and change as they do. The Trillo olive has twigs as rigid and robust as the Puntarolo, rather long and little ramified, so as to appear like the Leccino and also a little like the wild tree. It is a middle-sized tree, its leaves broad, sharp and spinated in form, darker on the upper side and lighter on the lower than the Puntarolo, fecund in flower and fruit, which latter comes to maturity in bunches of three and four at very nearly the same time as the preceding variety. The berries hold on better than the Puntarolo, but not so well as the Leccino, and are ovate and pointed like the latter. The Trillo and others called Morchiacci, and sometimes simply seedlings, are quite like one another in rusticity. Sometimes they endure cold as the Morchiacci, and sometimes the sea wind and cold as the Puntarolo and Trillo.

The Empeltre is a tree of small size, with erect and thinly populated branches, smooth bark, and shows great vigor in closing