CHAP. XXXVIII. ANACAllDIA^CE^. PISTA CIA. 547 



and somewhat furrowed; at first green, and afterwards reddish; but black, 

 or of a very dark blue, when ripe. The leaves and flowers emit a very 

 resinous odour, which spreads to a considerable distance, more especially at 

 sunset, when the dew is falling, after a very warm day. Gerard, in describing 

 this tree, says that its kernel is " clammie, full of fat, and oilous in substance, 

 and of a pleasant savour. This plant beareth an empty cod, or crooked home, 

 somewhat reddish, wherein are found small flies, wormes, or gnats, bred and 

 ingendered of a certaine humorous matter, which cleaveth to the inner sides of 

 the said cods or homes : which wormes have no physicall use at all." {Johnson'' s 

 Gerard, p. 1434'.) Exceedingly good figures of the male and female trees 

 are given by Gerard, in which the pods, or horns, produced by the insect (a 

 species of Cynips) when depositing its eggs, are exhibited as about the same 

 length as the leaves. Oliver states that these excrescences contain a small 

 portion of very limpid and odoriferous resin. The turpentine is procured 

 from the P. Terebinthus, by making numerous slight incisions in the trunk 

 and principal branches, from the ground as high up the trunk as a man can 

 reach, from the 13th to the 20th of July, according to the Greek calendar. 

 The tei'ebinth oozes out of the wounds made in the bark, and, in a few days, 

 becomes hard and dry by exposure to the air ; as in the case of the resins 

 produced by the pine tribe, and with resins generally. The colour is a bluish 

 or greenish white. It is collected every morning from the wounds in the 

 trees with a spatula ; and is purified from any extraneous matters that may 

 have stuck to it, by liquefaction by solar heat, and by passing it through a 

 sieve. The largest trees, of 50 or 60 years' growth, with trunks 4 ft. or 3 ft. 

 in circumference, do not yield above 10 oz. or 12 oz. annually : hence the 

 high price of the article, and its adulteration with Venice turpentine, which 

 is produced from the larch ; or with common turpentine, which is drawn from 

 the Scotch pine. The terebinth which is pure is called the Chian, or 

 Cyprus turpentine (from Chios, the ancient name of Scio) ; and, when una- 

 dulterated, it is known from the common turpentine by being thicker, and 

 possessing a far more agreeable odour ; it is also destitute of bitterness and 

 acridity. 



In consequence of the small quantity of terebinth produced by the trees in 

 Scio, a correspondent of Du Hamel's suggests the idea of grafting the P. vera, 

 or edible-fruit-bearing species, on the upper parts of trees of P. Terebinthus, 

 in order to render them more profitable. He states that he has seen this done 

 in a garden at Naples, and that the fruit was much larger and better than it 

 was on those trees which had not been grafted ; while the stocks produced as 

 much resin as the ungrafted plants of the same species. In British gardens, 

 the tree is not very common : the largest specimen that we know of it 

 is a female plant, in the north-east corner of the Chelsea Botanic Garden, 

 22 ft. high, that flowers every year, and produces fruit, which, though not fecun- 

 dated, attains the size of small peas. This species is generally considered as 

 the hardiest of the genus, and, with P. vera, may be planted in warm sheltered 

 situations in the open border. 



1 3. P. Lenti'scus Lin. The Mastich Tree. 



Identification. Lin. Spec, 1455. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 65. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 66. 



Engravings. Woodv. Med. Bot., t. 152. ; Black, t. 195. ; Duh. Arb., ed. nov., 4. t. 18.; and our 

 fig. 222. 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Evergreen. Leaves abruptly pinnate ; the leaflets 8, lan- 

 ceolate ; the petiole winged. {Dec. Prod., ii. p. 63.) A native of Southern 

 Europe, Northern Africa, and the Levant. 

 Varieties. 



1 P. L. 2 angustifdlia Dec, P. massiliensis Mill. Diet., P. angustifolia 

 massiliensis Toiirn., has leaflets almost linear, and the tree seldom 

 exceeds 10 ft. in height. 

 1 P. L. 3 chia N. Du Ham., iv. p. 72., P. chia Desf. Cat. Hurt. Par., a 

 native of Scio, where it produces the mastich. 

 p p 3 



