It is to this fruit that we are indebted for the _salad_ or _olive oil_, which is so much in use throughout every part of Europe. The preparation of it is as follows:--The olives, when sufficiently ripe, are carefully picked, by hand, off the trees, and those that are bad are taken out and thrown aside. After having been left a little while to wither, they are first bruised, and then more completely crushed, by an upright millstone rolling upon an horizontal plane. The paste thus formed is submitted to the operation of the press. The finest oil flows first: when no more is found to flow, the pulp is moistened with boiling water, and the mass is again pressed. This done, the remaining oil is drawn from the surface of the water, but it contains some impurities from which it cannot, without difficulty, be cleared. What remains of the pulp is squeezed into lumps or balls, and dried for fuel. If the olives be indiscriminately gathered and heaped together, sound and unsound, without selection, the oil is always bad. The wild trees yield a very small kind of fruit, which furnishes, though in less quantity, a peculiarly excellent oil. The olive tree has ever been considered the symbol of peace; and the ancient poets have asserted that Minerva well merited the honour of giving her name to the city of Athens for having planted it in Attica. As a _wood_, this tree is in considerable request by cabinet makers, from its being beautifully veined, and taking an excellent polish. In some parts of Spain, ornamental boxes are made of the roots of the olive tree. Olive oil is employed in various branches of culinary and domestic economy. When united with soda, it is manufactured into soap. It is likewise used in medicine; is adopted as a softening ingredient in almost all kinds of ointments and plasters, and is supposed to be efficacious as a remedy against the poison of the viper. Persons copiously anointed with oil are said to have escaped the infection of the plague and yellow fever. TRIGYNIA. 19. _THE COMMON JASMINE_ (Jasminum officinale) _is a well known shrub, with white, salver-shaped flowers, and opposite, winged leaves, the leaflets somewhat pointed; and is a native of Malabar and other parts of the East._ As an ornamental shrub, jasmine has long been cultivated in Europe. It is chiefly trained against walls and trellis-work, and is interesting, not only from the elegance of its foliage, but also from the number of beautiful white flowers with which it is adorned throughout the summer and autumn. These exhale a sweet and penetrating odour, particularly after rain, and in the night.