THE COMFEKOUS PLANTS OF ITALY. 



133 



to add resin to, or to hang Pine cones in them, as is done to the 

 present day : they probably employed several sorts of cones as 

 we do. In this custom we see, perhaps, the origin of the cone 

 that the ancients placed at the end of the Thyrsus ; this cone, 

 from its round form, seems to belong to Pinus Pinea. From 

 the same custom, no doubt, is derived the habit in Italy of 

 placing a cone as a sign before houses where they sell wine. 



Ovid makes Ceres light branches of Pine in the fire of Etna 

 when she was looking for her daughter Proserpine.* Etna'was 

 then supposed to have Pine forests, and consequently the Gorsi- 

 can Pine is here referred to. 



Firs are distinguished by Pliny, and otlier Roman writers, into 

 two sorts, Abies and Picea ; two sorts are also found in Italy at 

 the present day, viz. the Spruce Fir, which only occurs on the 

 Alps, and the Silver Fir, properly so called, which is spread 

 over the Alps and the entire chain of the Apennines. Linnseus 

 took Abies for the Spruce Fir, Picea for the Silver Fir, and 

 fixed on this supposition the botanical names : modern naturalists 

 think that Linnaeus confounded the names of these two species, 

 and has occasioned much confusion with respect to their sy- 

 nonyms. 



From wliat Pliny says of the Picea liking mountains and 

 slight frosts, and of the Abies that it grows on the highest parts 

 of the mountains, as if it fled from the sea,! one might be dis- 

 posed to think Linnaeus right ; for, although both are mountain 

 trees, the Spruce Fir grows at a greater elevation than the Silver 

 Fir. Let us first remark that we ought not to keep too close to 

 the difference between in excelso montium and monies et frigora, 

 in works written when the notions of botanical geography were 

 so vague ; there are. moreover, several weighty reasons for 

 translating Abies by Silver, and Picea by Spruce Fir. 



1. The Spruce Fir is in Italian Pezzo, and the Silver Fir 

 Abeto. In Greece, too, the Silver has kept its ancient name 

 (tAa-r/), corresponding to Pliny's Abies. 



2. Several passages in Pliny lead us to the same conclusion. 

 The seeds of Picea, he says, are small and black. ij: The seeds of 

 the Spruce Fir are smaller than those of the Silver. 



* Ovid, Fasti, iv. 493 — " Illic ascendit geminas pro lampade Pinus." 

 f Pliny, xvi. 18 — "Picea montes amat atque frigora" — "Situs (abietis) 

 in excelso montium, ceu maria fugerat." Viryil, Bi/c. eel. vii. 66 — " Abies 

 in montibus altis." Geor^. ii. 250— " At sceleratum exquirere frigus diffi- 

 cile est : piceae tautum taxique nocentes interdum, aut hedersE pandunt ves- 

 tigia nigra. "' 



I Fliiii/, xvi. 19 — " Picefe (habent nucloos) minimos ac nigros: propter 

 quod Gru-'ci plithirophoron euui appelluut." 



