SP .IZN. 
137 
pineapples, bananas, and beautiful flowers. No frost 
ever withers them; and no winter’s cold robs them of 
their leaves, their flowers, cr their fruits. 
3. The olive, though a >zcful tree, is not atall a 
handsome one. Its long 
narrow leaves are thick 
and stiff, and are of a 
dull grayish color, as 
though covered with 
dust. The branches are 
rough and crooked; and 
the trunk looks as 
though a strong hand 
had seized it by the top, 
and twisted it, as we 
twist acord. In spring 
it is covered with clus- 
ters of pretty white 
flowers, and in autumn 
with the small, dark-green, plum-shaped fruit from 
which the olive oil, often called sweet oil, is pressed. 
The fruit is also preserved, and sent to other countries 
to be used as a relish at meals. 
9. Do you wish to know the use of the mulberry 
trees? Their leaves furnish the food of the silkworm. 
Very many of these worms are raised in Spain, When 
they have lived a certain length of time, and are grown 
to their full size, they spin a fine thread, which they 
wind round their bodies until they are completely 
wrapped up in it. '"Thus they form a ball somewhat 
like that made by the caterpillar, from which a butterfly 
comes in the spring. "This ball of thread which the 
Olive Tree and Fruit.