5S2 



PINDEMONTE HNK. 



British residents at the Indian cunrts large bodies of 

 mercenary troops, which the mediatised nabobs \\crc 

 obliged to pay. The number of the Pindarees was 

 thus increased, and they were secretly excited by the 

 Indian tributaries to attack the company. In 1817, 

 the British governor-general, the marquis of Hastings, 

 determined on the destruction of these robbers, whose 

 force was estimated at 40,000 horse. Attacked on 

 all sides, they were conquered and dispersed. Gar- 

 risons were placed in some fortresses, and hostages 

 taken to Calcutta ; their other strong places were 

 demolished. A flying party of seapoys was kept 

 without intermission on the right bank of the Ner- 

 budda, &c. At last, a moderate yearly tribute was 

 imposed on the subjected tribes. The East India 

 company has followed the rule of increasing their 

 revenue, territory and troops, after every war, at the 

 expense of the vanquished, so that the subjected 

 princes have seldom ventured to break a second lance 

 with the British governor-general. 



P1NUEMONTE, CAVALIERE IPPOLITO, an Italian 

 poet, was born at Verona, in 1753, and, at the age of 

 eighteen years, distinguished himself by his poetical 

 productions. Having travelled through Italy, France, 

 and Britain, he preserved the impressions made on 

 him by his journey in his Viaggi. In his Poesie Cam- 

 pestri, he speaks with enthusiasm of British scenery 

 and life. His Arminio, a tragedy founded on the 

 death of Arminius, contains choruses of warriors and 

 \irgins which are models of style. His lyric poems 

 are among his best works, and display a depth of 

 thought and feeling with which the author seems to 

 have been inspired by British literature. Besides 

 translations from Homer, Virgil, Ovid and Catullus, 

 his Fata Morgana, Elogia di Gessner, and // Colpo 

 di Martello, are worthy of notice. Pindemonte lived 

 at Venice, and died in 1828. His brother, the mar- 

 quis Giovanni Pindemonte (born 1751, died 1812), was 

 the author of some dramatic works Componimenti 

 Teatrali and translated Ovid's Remedia slmoris. 



PINDUS ; a mountainous ridge in Greece, between 

 Thessaly, Macedonia, Epirus and ^Etolia. It was, 

 like Helicon and Parnassus, a seat of Apollo and the 

 muses. (See JEta.} It is now called Mezzovo. 



PINE. A genus of plants, the principal one of 

 the conifers, consisting of lofty evergreen trees with 

 acicular leaves, and their branches disposed in a 

 verticillate form. The flowers are monoecious, and 

 the fruit is a cone, having the seeds attached to the 

 inside of each scale. The pines, together with the 

 spruces and larches, form the most striking feature 

 in the vegetation of temperate climates, and are, 

 besides, among the most useful of the products of the 

 vegetable creation. Formerly these three genera 

 were united ; but the true pines are readily distin- 

 guished by having their leaves, to the number of two, 

 three, or five, united at base in a cylindrical membra- 

 nous sheath. About thirty species are known. 



The red Canadian pine (pinus resinosa) , a northern 

 species, inhabiting the whole of Canada from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, and also found in the northern 

 ar,d eastern parts of the United States, is rare on the 

 coast south of the forty-third parallel of latitude, and 

 even on the mountains has not been hitherto observed 

 beyond the forty-first. In Canada and Nova Scotia 

 it is called yellow pine it is sometimes also impro 

 perly termed Norway pine. Even in those districts 

 where most common, it does not constitute a large 

 proportion of the forest, but occupies small tracts of 

 u few hundred acres, where the soil is dry and sandy, 

 and grows either alone or in company with the white 

 pine. The trunk rises to the height of seventy or 

 eighty feet by about two in diameter at base, and is 

 chiefly remarkable for its uniform size for two thirds 

 of its length : the bark is of a clearer red than in 



any other of our pines ; the leaves are in pairs, and 

 are collected in bunches at the extremity of the 

 brandies ; and the scales of the cones are unarmed 

 a character which serves to distinguish it from 

 allied species. The wood is compact and fine- 

 grained, rendered heavy by resinous matter, and is 

 highly esteemed for its strength and durability. In 

 the British provinces and in Maine, it is frequently 

 employed in naval architecture, especially tor the 

 decks of vessels, furnishing planks free from knots, 

 of forty feet in length. It is also used for masts, and 

 lias furnished the main-mast of a fifty-gun ship. It 

 is exported to Britain, both from Maine and from the 

 St Lawrence. When young, it is a beautiful tree, 

 and the vegetation is always vigorous. 



The scrub pine, or gray pine (P. banksiana) is a 

 dwarf species, from three to ten feet hi^h, unimpor- 

 tant in a useful point of view. 



The true yellow pine (P. variabilis) rises to the 

 'height of fifty or sixty feet, by fifteen or eighteen 

 inches in diameter at base, and sometimes more : the 

 leaves are four or five inches long, and are usually in 

 pairs, but sometimes in threes on the younger shoots ; 

 the cones are small, oval, and armed with fine spines. 

 The heart is fine-grained, compact, moderately re- 

 sinous, and is highly esteemed for its excellence and 

 durability. Immense quantities are used in naval 

 architecture at New York, Philadelphia, and Balti- 

 more, for decks, masts, yards, beams and cabins, and 

 it is considered next in durability to the long-leaved 

 pine : it is, besides, employed for various mechanical 

 purposes. Turpentine and tar may be obtained from 

 the tree, but in too small quantities, and with too 

 much labour to yield a profit. 



The Jersey pine (P. mops], has received this ap- 

 pellation from being most abundant in the lower part 

 of New Jersey, where it grows in company with the 

 yellow pine. This is a small tree, rarely attaining 

 the height of thirty or forty feet, with a diameter of a 

 foot at base. The leaves are in pairs, one or two 

 inches long, and the cones are armed with strong 

 spines. The trunk is too small to be of any utility 

 in the arts, and, besides, consists of a great proportion 

 of sap. 



The pitch pine (P. rigida) is most abundant along 

 the Atlantic coast, where die soil is diversified, but 

 generally meagre. The ridges of the Alleghanies in 

 Pennsylvania and Virginia are sometimes covered 

 with it, and in some i arts of the latter state it has 

 received the name of black pine. The forty-fifth de- 

 gree of latitude appears to be its northern limit. It 

 is frequently seen in large and miry swamps, and in 

 such situations attains the height of seventy or eighty 

 feet by two in diameter at base ; and it appears to 

 support the preserve of sea-water better than any 

 other pine. The leaves are in threes, varying much 

 in length, as do the cones in size ; the latter are 

 armed with acute spines. The branches are very 

 numerous, and occupy two-thirds of the trunk, which 

 renders the wood extremely knotty. The quality of 

 the wood varies according to the situation ; in swamps 

 it is light, soft, and consists of a greater proportion of 

 sap, but in a dry, gravelly soil it is compact, heavy, 

 and contains a large proportion of resin. These de- 

 fects render it much inferior to the yellow pine ; but, 

 as this is becoming scarce, it takes its place for some 

 purposes. 



The loblolly pine ( P. t^da), often exceeds eighty 

 feet in height, with a wide spreading summit, and, 

 next to the white pine, is the loftiest of our species. 

 The leaves are six inches long, united by threes, or 

 sometimes fours, on the young and vigorous shoots. 

 The cones are four inches long, and armed with 

 strong pines. The wood consists of a still larger 

 proportion of sap than any above-mentioned ; trunks 



