THE CONIFEROUS PLANTS OF ITALY. 131 



the most beautiful ornament of gardens ; and Horace mentions a 

 Pine tliat grew near his country house.* According to Varro, 

 Pines served to mark the boundaries of estates. f 



5. Lastly, in Pompeii and Herculaneum, we find figures of 

 Pine cones in drawings of fruits and of culinary substances, and 

 also on the arabesques : in the latter town kernels of charred 

 Pines have been discovered. 



Thus by the word Pinus the Latin writers generally meant 

 the Pinus Pmea ; but the word is also no doubt employed gene- 

 tically, and applies to several species of Pines. Thus Pliny uses 

 the word in the plural, when speaking of several species ;f Pinus 

 is often mentioned as furnishing wood for building purposes, and 

 especially for ship building, although the wood of P. Pinea is 

 not good for such purposes. Used figuratively this word often 

 signifies a ship.§ 



Pliny, having spoken of the Stone Pine, goes to the Pinaster ;|| 

 he says it is nothing but a wild Pine, remai'kable for its great 

 height, for the quantity of resin it yields, and for sending out 

 branches from tlie middle of its trunk ; he adds that it also grows 

 in plains. It might be at first supposed that this is nothing but 

 the P. Pinaster of modern botanists ; P. Pinea and Pinaster 

 grow together in Tuscany ; the first is called Pino domestico, 

 and the last Pino selvatico ; the latter contains a large quantify 

 of resin, has not the crown of the Stone Pine, and grows as well 

 in the plains as on the low mountains. It is true that it does not 

 reach further south than the 42nd degree of latitude ; but Pliny 

 does not say expressly that it is found in the territories of Rome 

 and of Naples ; it might besides have formerly extended more to 

 the south ; for Santi, in his voyages, mentions a large Pine forest 

 destroyed in the Siennese, that had extended from the Ombrone to 

 Castiglione. Notwithstanding all this, there is a strong argu- 

 ment against the identity of the Pinaster of the ancients with 

 that of the moderns ; the former was said to be of extraordinary 

 height, whilst the latter is almost as low as P. Pinea. For 

 the same reason the Pinaster cannot be the common P. halepen- 

 sis, which is still lower than P. Pinea. But this great height 

 agrees with the P. Laricio, which in Corsica attains the enor- 

 mous height of 140 or 150 feet, and in Sila, in Calabria, of 120 



* Firgil, Buc. vii. 65 — " Fraxinus in sylvis pulcherrima, Pinus in hortis." 

 Hor. ill. 22 — " Pinus imminens villae." 



f Varro, i. 15. 



j Pliny, xvi. 33 — Pinis. 



(« Virgil, Buc. Eel. iv. 38. 



II Pliny, xvi. 17 — " Pinaster nihil aliud est quam Pinus sylvestris mir^ 

 altitudine, et a medio ramosa " — " Copiosorem dat hsec resinam " — " Gignitur 

 in planis." 



K 2 



