THE PISTACHIO-NUT TEEE ] 



imperfect pollination generally resulting in a considerable 

 proportion of nuts which are apparently well formed but 

 have an abortive kernel or no kernel at all. A male tree 

 is considered sufficient for the pollination of ten female 

 trees, and for the purposes of pollination the male 

 tree of Pistacia Terebinthus Lin. the Chio or Cyprus 

 Turpentine tree, or Terebinth, is just as good as the 

 male of Pistacia vera, and indeed is said to yield a 

 produce of better quality. In fact in the extensi-ve 

 plantations of Sicily, only the female Pistachio tree is 

 propagated by grafting or budding on the terebinth and 

 pollination is done by male individuals of the terebinth 

 which are planted or are allowed to remain unbudded 

 and distributed at proper distances in the plantation 

 expressly for this purpose. 



PROPAGATION. The tree can be propagated by seed, 

 but the pistachio-nuts lose quickly their germinating 

 power if kept in a dry condition, and therefore should be 

 stratified with sand and leaf mould as soon as they are 

 collected from the tree, and are sown in the following 

 March or April. They fail to germinate if more than a 

 year old. A large proportion of the seedlings, about 50 

 per cent will be male trees and therefore useless as 

 producers, and the female trees will produce fruits of all 

 shapes and sizes, so that the produce of a seedling 

 plantation will not be of a uniform quality as required in 

 commerce. Another important consideration consists in 

 the fact that the pistachio-nut tree being generally polli- 

 nated, at least in Sicily, by the male of the terebinth, 

 the seedlings obtained will be hybrids between the two 

 species. Such hybrids (Pistacia hybrida Ga.^p.) produce 

 small roundish fruits having all the qualities of the 

 pistachio-nut, but too small to be useful, except perhaps 

 for the purpose of raising stock on which the cultivated 

 pistachio tree may be grafted or budded. 



The tree may be propagated by budding or grafting 

 on its own seedlings, but the general rule is to bud it on 



