326 



PIN 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



PIN 



of Bedford at Woburn, which were twenty feet high when 

 they were not of many years' standing, and kept pace with 

 the other sorts in the same plantation. 



8. Pinus Palustris ; Swamp Pine Tree. Leaves three in a 

 sheath, very long; cones subcylindrical, echinated; branches 

 roughened with ramentaceous stipules. As the leaves are a 

 foot and more in length, growing in tufts at the ends of the 

 branches, they have a very singular appearance ; the wood 

 is of little use except for fuel. Native of Carolina and 

 Georgia. It does not succeed well in most places here ; in 

 severe frosts the leading shoots are often killed ; and in dry 

 ground it will not thrive : unless the soil be favourable, it is 

 to little purpose to plant this sort of Pine. 



9. Pinus Cembra ; Siberian Stone Pine Tree. Leaves five 

 in a sheath ; cones ovate, blunt ; scales pressed close ; nuts 

 hard. This is confounded with the Swiss Stone Pine; but 

 the cones of the latter are short and roundish, with close 

 scales, whereas those of the Siberian Pine are long, and the 

 scales looser ; the leaves have a near resemblance. But the 

 plants raised from Swiss seeds make much greater progress 

 than the others, which can scarcely be kept alive in England. 

 The Cembra Pine grows higher up the Alps than any other 

 species, and is even found at elevations where the Larch will 

 not grow. The wood is very soft, and, having scarcely any 

 grain, is very fit for the carver; hence the peasants of the 

 Tyrol, where this tree abounds, make various sorts of carved 

 works with this wood, which they dispose of among the com- 

 mon people of Switzerland, who are fond of the resinous smell 

 which it exhales. Linneus, and other botanists, make this 

 the same with the Siberian Stone Pine, which resembles it 

 much; but Duhamel and Haller maintain them to be distinct 

 species. The Siberian Pine is lofty. and straight, pushing 

 out few side-branches ; whereas the Swiss Pine is small, 

 knotty, and often deformed. The wood of the Siberian has 

 no smell, and the cones are different. In the Brianconnois 

 the Cembra is called Alviez, and in Savoy Aroles; but Vil- 

 lars remarks, in reply to this latter objection, that it has 

 different names -in almost every village of Dtiuphiny. The 

 kernels are good to eat, and yield abundance of oil, which 

 smells a little of turpentine, and is pectoral and diuretic. 

 It is likely to thrive in bleak rocky situations, or on peaty 

 moors ; the timber is large, and the bark of the trunk of a 

 whitish cast. Wainscoting, flooring, and other joiner's work, 

 made of the planks, are of a fine.r grain and more beautifully 

 variegated than deal, and the smell is more agreeable. A 

 white odoriferous resin is extracted from the wood. 



10. Pinus Occidentals ; West Indian Pine Tree. Leaves 

 five in a sheath, rugged along the edge, very long; cones 

 oblong ; scales truncated at top. Native of the West Indies. 



11. Pinus Strobus; Wet/mouth or White Pine Tree. Leaves 

 five in a sheath ; cones cylindrical, longer than the leaf, loose. 

 This is the most useful and tallest species, often attaining to 

 a hundred feet high in its native country. The bark is very 

 smooth and delicate, especially while the tree is young. The 

 wood is esteemed for masts of ships ; and there was a law 

 made in the 9th of Queen Anne, for the preservation of these 

 trees, and to encourage their growth in America. Found on 

 the sides of hills, in a fertile soil, from Canada to Virginia, 

 flowering in May. It is only within the last half century 

 that they have been propagated in any great plenty in Eng- 

 land, though there were some large ones growing in several 

 places long before. The value of the timber in our island, 

 especially in cold soils, is perhaps doubtful ; nor will it bear 

 the severity of our winters, and the variableness of our 

 springs, except in particular situations and soils. It is how- 

 ever a very beautiful species, and fit for masts particularly. 



It grows best upon a moist light soil, not too wet, and will 

 also thrive on a loamy soil, if it does not approach too near 

 to clay. The seeds should be sown with a little more care 

 than the Scotch Pine, because their stems being not so 

 strong, they are more. apt to go off while young; if therefore 

 they are sown in the full ground, the bed should be screened 

 with mats from the sun every day, but exposed to the dews 

 every night. If all the plants be removed into beds in July, 

 it will be a sure way to preserve them ; but as they grow 

 faster than the Scotch Pine, they should be planted farther 

 asunder, their rows six inches distant, and the plants four 

 inches apart. This will allow them room to grow, till the 

 spring twelvemonth following; when they maybe either trans- 

 planted where they are to remain, or into a nursery, where 

 they may stand two years to get strength ; but the sooner 

 they are planted where they are to stand, the less danger 

 there will be of their succeeding, and the larger they will 

 grow; for although they will bear transplanting at a greater 

 age, yet when they are planted young, they will muke much 

 greater progress, and grow to a greater size. When planted 

 in a soft hazel loam, shoots of one year have frequently 

 measured two feet and a half in length ; and they have con- 

 tinued for some years to grow in proportion. They should 

 have a sheltered situation, for where the trees have been 

 much exposed to the south-west winds, they have not made 

 half the progress of those which grew in shelter ; and in large 

 plantations those on the outside have not kept pace with 

 those in the middle, nor have their leaves retained their ver- 

 dure so well. 



12. Pinus Cedrus ; Cedar of Lebanon. Leaves tufted, 

 perennial ; cones ovate, abrupt, their scales closely pressed ; 

 crest of the anthers ovate, flat, erect. This noble tree has 

 a generally striking character of growth, so peculiar to itself 

 that no other tree can be mistaken for it. It is placed by Lin- 

 neus along with the Larch, in the same genus with the Firs and 

 Pines. The sturdy arms, says Evelyn, grow in time so weighty, 

 as often to bend the very stem and main shaft. The leaves 

 somewhat resemble those of the Larch, but are somewhat 

 longer, and closer set, erect, and perpetually green, which 

 those of the Larch are not, but hanging down, dropping 

 off, and deserting the tree in winter. The cones are tacked 

 and ranged between the branch-leaves, in such order as to 

 appear exceedingly curious and artificial, and at a little dis- 

 tance extremely beautiful ; these cones have the bases rounder, 

 shorter, or rather thicker, and with blunter points, the whole 

 circumzoned as it were with pretty broad thick scales, which 

 adhere together in exact series, to the very summits, where 

 they are sometimes smaller ; but the entire lorication is 

 smoother couched than those of the Firs ; within these repo- 

 sitories under the scales, nestle the small nutting seeds of a 

 pear-shape. Many wonderful properties are ascribed to the 

 wood of this celebrated tree, such as its resisting putrefac- 

 tion, destroying noxious insects, continuing a thousand or two 

 years sound, yielding an oil famous for preserving books and 

 writings, purifying the air by its effluvia, &c. With respect 

 to its durability, we have better evidence than that of the 

 heathen writers, who say that in the temple of Apollo at Utica 

 a beam of this wood was found perfect at the age of two 

 thousand years. In their relation of its properties there is 

 much vulgar error and confusion ; but we know that this was 

 the species of timber employed in building the sumptuous 

 temple and palace of Solomon at Jerusalem; and its durability 

 receives no doubtful confirmation, from their standing so 

 many hundred years, and at last perishing, not by decay, 

 but by fire. The allusion of (he royal Psalmist, of spreading 

 abroad " like a Cedar in Libanus," shews that he was well 



