322 



PI N 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



P I N 



side, gibbous on the other. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Male. Calix : four-leaved. Corolla : none. Stamina : very 

 many, with naked antheree. Female. Calix: strobiles with a 

 two-flowered scale. Corolla : none. Pistil: one. Seeds: two, 



winged at the base of each scale. The species are, 



*Pine with two or more Leaves from the same sheathing Base. 

 1. Pinus Sylvestris; Wild Pine Tree, or Scotch Fir. 

 Leaves two in a sheath, rigid; cones ovate, conical, the length 

 of the leaves, single, or two together, rounded at the base. 

 In a favourable soil, this tree grows to the height of fourscore 

 feet, with a straight trunk, and oblique branches; the bark is 

 of a brownish colour, and full of crevices; the wood is the red 

 or yellow deal, which is the most durable of any of the kinds 

 yet known. Few trees have been applied to more uses than 

 this: the tallest and straightest afford masts to our navy; the 

 timber is resinous, durable, and applicable to numberless 

 domestic purposes. Native of dry, stony, sandy hills in Scot- 

 land, and other northern parts of Europe, flowering in May, 

 and ripening seed two years afterwards. This species lives 

 to the age of 400 years or more. From the trunk and branches 

 of this and others of the genus, tar and pitch are obtained ; as 

 are barras, burgundy pitch, and turpentine, by incision. The 

 resinous roots are dug out of the ground, in many parts of 

 the Highlands of Scotland; and being divided into small 

 splinters, are used by the inhabitants instead of candles. 

 The fishermen make ropes of the inner bark; and hard 

 necessity has taught the Laplanders and Kamtschadales to 

 convert it into bread : to effect this in spring, they strip off 

 the outer bark carefully from the fairest trees, and collect 

 the soft white succulent interior bark, and dry it in the 

 shade ; when they have occasion to use it, they first toast it 

 at the fire, then grind, and after steeping the flower in warm 

 water to take off the resinous taste, they make it into thin cakes, 

 and bake them. Linneus observes, that this bark bread will 

 fatten swine; and that the boys in Sweden frequently peel off 

 the bark in spring, and eat it with the greatest avidity. 

 The manner by which tar is procured, is by cutting the tree 

 into pieces, which are enclosed in a large oven, with a chan- 

 nel at the bottom : a sufficient degree of heat is then ap- 

 plied, by which the tar is forced out of the wood, and runs 

 off by the channel ; a process termed distillatio per descen- 

 sum. Tar is properly an empyreumatic oil of turpentine, 

 and has been much used as a medicine, both internally and 

 externally. Tar-water, or water impregnated with the'more 

 soluble parts of tar, has been a very popular remedy in vari- 

 ous obstinate disorders, both acute and chronic; and though 

 its medicinal efficacy has been greatly exaggerated, the cele- 

 brated Dr. Cullen acknowledges that he experienced it to 

 he a valuable medicine, and that it appeared to strengthen 

 the tone of the stomach, to excite appetite, promote digestion, 

 and cure all symptoms of dyspepsia ; while at the same time 

 it manifestly promotes the excretions, particularly that of 

 urine. The proportions that have been commonly employed, 

 are two pounds of tar to a gallon of water; these are well 

 stirred together, suffered to settle for two days, and then 

 poured off: from a pint to a quart, according to circum- 

 stances, may be taken in the course of twenty-four hours. 

 Dr. Cullen thought that the acid principle gives the virtue to 

 tar- water; and hence the bishop of Cloyne, who first brought 

 tar-water into repute, preferred the Norway tar to that of 

 New England, the former containing mare acid than the 

 latter. An ointment of tar is directed both in the London 

 and Edinburgh Pharmacopoeias, and has been chiefly used in 

 cutaneous disorders. From the cones or Pine apples a diu- 

 retic oil is prepared, like oil of turpentine; and a resinous 

 extract, which .has similar virtues with balsam of Peru. An 



infusion of the buds is highly commended as antiscorbutic. 

 The kernels or seeds are excellent restoratives in consump- 

 tions, and after long illnesses. The best way of giving them 

 is in an emulsion beat up with barley-water ; which is also 

 very good for heat of urine, and other'disorders of the urinary 

 passages. The resinous juice which flows from this tree, 

 either naturally or when it is cut for that purpose, is what 

 we call common turpentine. It is a thick honey-like sub- 

 stance, of a brownish colour, and a strong disagreeable smell. 

 When this turpentine has undergone the operation of being 

 distilled for the oil or spirit of turpentine, what remains in 

 the still is common resin, which is yellow if the fire be extin- 

 guished in time, or otherwise black. The several kinds of 

 turpentine and resins are chiefly used for composing plaisters 

 and ointments. Sometimes they are made into pills, and 

 taken inwardly, and are good against the whites, and those 

 runnings which remain after claps when the virulence of the 

 disorder is abated. The farina of the male flowers is some- 

 times in spring carried away by the wind in such vast quanti- 

 ties from the forests of these trees, that ignorant persons have 



been alarmed with the notion of its raining brimstone. 



There are several varieties, which we shall briefly notice : 

 1. The Tartarian Pine. Leaves in twos, glaucous; cones 

 very small. This has a great resemblance to the Scotch 

 Pine, but the leaves are broader, shorter, and their points 

 more obtuse ; they emit a very strong balsamic odour when 

 bruised; the cones and seeds are very small, some of the lat- 

 ter are black, and some white. Native of Tartary. 2. The 

 Mountain or Mughoe Pine Tree. Leaves often in threes, 

 narrower, green ; cones pyramidal, with blunt scales. The 

 seeds of this are much less than those of the Pinaster, but 

 larger than those of the Scotch Pine. Villars says, it is the 

 most common sort on the mountains of Dauphiny, and that 

 the shortness of the trunk, and other characters, disappears 

 when it grows in lower situations, insomuch that it cannot 

 then be distinguished from the common sort. Native of the 

 Swiss mountains, where it is called Torch Pine, grows there to 

 a great height, is lull of resin, and the wood when first cut of a 

 reddish colour. 3. Sea Pine tree. This has smooth leaves, 

 the cones are very long and slender, and the seeds are about 

 the same size with those of the Pinaster. It grows in the 

 maritime parts of Italy, and the south of France. Propaga- 

 tion and Culture. All the sorts of Pines are propagated by 

 seeds, which are produced in hard woody cones : the way to ex- 

 tract the seeds, is to lay the cones before a gentle fire, or in the 

 sun, which will cause the cells to open, and then the seeds 

 may be easily taken out. If the cones be kept entire, the 

 seeds will continue good for some years ; so that the surest 

 way to preserve them is to let them remain in the cones, until 

 the time for sowing the seeds. If the cones be kept in a 

 warm place in summer, they will open and emit the seeds ; 

 but if kept cool, they will remain entire for some years, especi- 

 ally those which are close and compact: and the seeds which 

 have been taken out of cones of seven years old, have grown 

 very well, so, that they may be transported to any distance, 

 if well ripened and properly packed. The best time for sow- 

 ing is about the end of March; and when the seeds are sown, 

 the place should be covered with nets, to keep of the birds, 

 otherwise, when the plants begin to appear with the husk of 

 the seed on their tops, the birds will pick off the heads of the 

 plants, and destroy them. Where the quantity of seeds to 

 be sown is not great, it will be a good way to sow them either 

 in boxes or pots filled with light loamy earth, which may be 

 removed from one situation to another, according to the sea- 

 son of the year; but if there be a large quantity of the seeds, 

 so as to require a good space to receive them, they should be 



