546 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART 111. 



Descnption, Sfc. The trunk of this tree is 

 clothed with grey bark. The branches are 

 spreading, but not very numerous ; and they 

 are furnished with winged alternate leaves, on 

 long petioles. The fruit is oval, about the 

 size of an olive : it is reddish and furrowed, 

 and it contains a kernel, oily and mild to the 

 taste. It is a native of Syria, Barbary, Persia, 

 and Arabia. It was brought from Syria to Italy 

 by the Emperor Vitellius, whence it found its 

 way to the south of France, where it is so far 

 naturalised as to appear, in some places, like a 

 native. (See 131.) It is cultivated in the south 

 of France, and in Italy, for its fruit, which is 

 sometimes eaten raw, but more frequently in a 

 dried state, like almonds. They are most ge- 

 nerally used on the Continent as sugar-plums, 

 being covered with sugar, or with chocolate, under the name of diablotins : 

 creams and ices are also composed of them, coloured green with the juice 

 of spinach. Generally, the fruit is said to be a fortifier of the stomach, and 

 to diminish coughs and colds. There is a nut in)ported from the West 

 Indies, under the name of pistachia nut, which is the produce of quite a 

 different plant, probably a palm. In British gardens, the tree is not much 

 planted, from its being generally supposed to require a wall ; but, in fa- 

 vourable situations, it will grow as a standard or a bush ; as is proved by a 

 plant in the garden of the London Horticultural Society, which has stood 

 there for 5 or 6 years without any protection. It will grow in any common 

 garden soil, and may be propagated, either by nuts procured from abroad, or 

 even from the Italian warehouses in England, or by cuttings. Miller says, 

 if planted against high walls, with a warm aspect, or as standards in a shel- 

 tered situation, they will bear the cold of our ordinary winters very well ; but, 

 in severe frosts, they are often destroyed. The tree, he says, flowers, and pro- 

 duces fruit freely in England; but the summers are not warm enough to ripen 

 the nuts. He mentions a tree, in the Bishop of London's garden at Fulham, 

 upwards of 40 years old, planted against a wall; and another, which had been 

 planted as a standard, in the Duke of Richmond's grounds, at Goodwood, 

 in Sussex, where it had stood many years without the slightest protection. 

 Till lately, there was a very fine specimen at Syon. The foliage of the tree is 

 so ornamental, that no conservative wall ought to be without one. 



t 2. P. Terebi'nthus Lin. The Turpentine Pistachia, or Venetian, or Chian, 

 Turpentine Tree. 



Identification. Lin. Spec, 1455. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 64. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 65. 



Synonymes. T. vulgaris Tourn. Inst., 519. ; P. vfera Mill. Diet., No. 4. ; Pistachier Terebinthe, Fr. ; 



Terpentin Pistacie, Ger. ; Terebinto, ItcU. 

 Engravings. Woodv. Med. Bot., 415. t. 153. ; Blackw, t. 478. ; Dull. Arb., ed. 1. vol. 2. t 87. 



Spec. Char., Src Leaves deciduous, impari-pinnate, of about 7 leaflets, that 

 are ovate-lanceolate, rounded at the base, and at the tip acute and mucro- 

 nate. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 64.) A tree, growing to the height of 30 ft. in the 

 south of Europe and north of Africa. Introduced in 1656. 



Varieti/. 



¥ P. T. 2 spkcerocdrpa Dec. Prod., ii. p. 64. The round-fruited Tur- 

 pentine Pistachia Tree. — Its fruit is larger and rounder than that of 

 the species. (J. Bauh. Hist., i. p. 278. ic.) It is said to be a native 

 of the East. Requien has seen a cultivated plant of this variety in 

 a garden at Nismes. {Dec. Prod., ii. p. 64.) 



Description, 8fc. The general appearance of the tree is that of P. vfera, but 

 the leaves are larger, and the fruit only a third of the size ; the leaflets are, 

 also, lanceolate, instead of being subovate. The fruit is round, not succulent. 



