132- 



THE CONIFEROUS PLANTS OF ITALY. 



to 130 feet; but the statement that the Pinaster grew in the 

 plains does not apply so well, for P. Laricio is a mountain tree ; 

 but Tenore says that it is occasionally found in the plains. By 

 Pinaster Pliny probably meant both P. Pinaster and Laricio, 

 which are not very unlike one another. Pliny's Pinaster can- 

 not possibly be P. sylvestris, for the latter is found on the Alps 

 only at a certain height above the sea, and rarely perhaps on the 

 northern Apennines : it is not very high. 



After noticing the Pinaster, Pliny passes on to enumerate the 

 Pines, and says* — Most people think that this tree {Pinaster) is 

 the same as that found along the coasts of Italy, formerly called 

 tibulus, but the latter is more slender, compact, and without 

 knots; it is used in the construction of Liburnian ships, and has 

 little resin. I cannot help thinking that this must refer to P- 

 halepensis, for this tree is found along the coasts of Italy ; its 

 trunk is more slender, its bark more united, and when older its 

 branches form a tuft ; in this point the tree resembles P. Pinea 

 more than do any of the others. Succincta is the very word 

 used by Ovid when speaking of P. Pinea ; but the absence of 

 resin renders the resemblance less complete. However this may 

 be, P. halepensis was found in Italy, as is clearly proved by the 

 paintings of this tree on the walls of Pompeii, 



After speaking of the two sorts of Fir and of the Larch, 

 Pliny says : " The sixth sort (of Conifers) is the teda, properly 

 so called, with a more abundant sap than the others ; but still 

 less abundant and more liquid than that of the Spruce Fir, em- 

 ployed as torches and lights in religious ceremonies."t The 

 same author says in anotiier place that it is from the teda that 

 pitch is obtained in Europe.^ Here he seems to me to speak of 

 Pinus sylvestris ; for it is more especially from this tree that 

 pitch is at present ol^tained :§ its resin is copious and liquid ; its 

 branches are still very generally used as torches in the Alps. 

 Other sorts of Pine, however, also furnish torches ; it is for this 

 reason that Pliny says '' teda, properly sj^eaking," signifies torches 

 in general. 



The ancients were accustomed, in order to keep their wines. 



•" Pliny, xvi. 17 — "Easdem arbores alio nomine esse per oram Italise, 

 quos tibulos vocant plerique avbitrantur, sed graciles succinctioresque, et 

 enodes, liburnicarum ad usus, poene sine resina." 



f Pliny, xvi. 19 — " Sextum genus est teda propria dicta, abundantior 

 succo quam reliqua, parciore liquidioreque quam in picea flammis ac lumini 

 sacrorum etiam grata." 



X Ibid. xvi. 21 — " Pix liquida in Europa e teda coquitur navalibus muni- 

 endis multosque alios ad usus." 



§ At tbe same place Pliny talks of pitch obtained from trees in Syria, and 

 employed for embalming in Egypt ; this must be another species. 



