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P I N 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



P I N 



tial oil, in which the virtues of turpentine reside, is not only 

 preferred for external use, as ambifacient, &c. but also inter- 

 nally as a diuretic; and by Pitcairne and Cheyne, as a remedy 

 for the sciatica, although few stomachs are able to bear it in 

 the doses which they direct. The Larch also yields a kind of 

 manna, and two sorts of gum. The manna is found in the 

 south of France, and is there called Manne de Briancon ; it is 

 white, concrete, and sweet, like fine new honey. It is rare, 

 and only met with in little drops, so that it would be difficult 

 to collect a pound of it : the drops are more or less hard, 

 and cleave to the leaves. It has been picked off the turf at 

 sun-rise almost fluid, exactly in the state in which it is found 

 upon the trees. Pallas informs us, that they have this manna 

 in the Russian empire, but that it is very rarely found con- 

 crete, being soon washed off by the rains which prevail on 

 the Uralian mountains. He also mentions a gum that is 

 produced by this tree in particular circumstances. When 

 the woods are on fire, which frequently happens in Russia, 

 the Larches are frequently scorched on the side next the 

 flame to the height of several feet. If the scorching pene- 

 trate to the pith, the inner part exudes a dry reddish gum, 

 rather less glutinous than gum-arabic, having a slight taste 

 of resin, but wholly soluble in water. It is used in medi- 

 cine, and the native mountaineers chew it to fasten their 

 teeth, as an antiscorbutic, and highly nutritive substance ; 

 they also use it as a glue to fasten their bows. The Siberian 

 ermine hunters, when their ferment or yeast which they 

 carry with them to make the acid liquor which they call 

 Quass with, is spoiled by the cold, scrape off the albumen 

 or half-formed substance between the bark and the wood, 

 which is very juicy and sweet, digest it with water over the 

 fire during an hour, mix it with their rye-meal, bury the 

 dough in the snow, and after twelve hours find the ferment 

 ready prepared in the subsiding faeces. Old Larches pro- 

 duce a Fungus which is called Boletus Laricis by Jacquin, 

 and by others Agaricus Purgans, or Purging Mushroom. 

 It is used in the northern countries as an emetic in intermit- 

 ting fevers. The body of it is saponaceous, and is used by 

 the females in some parts of Siberia to wash themselves, and 

 even their linen. It was celebrated formerly, but is now 

 deservedly fallen into total disuse, as a medicine. The Tun- 

 guses dye the hair of the reindeer with it and the roots of 

 Gallium ; which produces a very deep red colour, that might 

 be useful in our dyeing. Propagation and Culture. The 

 great value of this tree is a sufficient justification for the 

 length at which we shall now treat of its culture. Though 

 tine cones of the Larch be of their full size in autumn, as the 

 seeds continue ripening all the winter, they should not be 

 gathered till March or April. Then spread them in dry 

 covered places till May or June, and afterwards expose them 

 to the full sun for several weeks, when the cones will open, 

 and many of the best seeds come out, by shaking them in 

 a wire sieve : to get out the rest, split the cones, by driving 

 a small piece of sharp iron through the centre, and then by 

 exposing them again to the sun for a few days; the seeds will 

 stake out, or may He easily picked out with the point of 

 a knife. Though the seeds in the cone are good for four or 

 five years, yet out of it they lose their vegetating quality in 

 a few months : therefore, as soon as they are got out, mix 

 them with fine dry sand, and keep them in bags till the sea- 

 son of sowing, which is the beginning of March, or as soon 

 after as the weather will permit. Sow them very thin in 

 beds three feet and a half broad, with alleys of eighteen 

 inches ; clap them gently in with the back of a spade, and 

 sift over them fine compost earth, with one-fourth sea-sand 

 or pit-sand. If the weather be dry, and not frosty, in a 



fortnight after sowing give them gentle waterings every fourth 

 or fifth day, and in six weeks they will begin to appear. 

 Guard them from birds with nets, and water them every 

 second or third night for three weeks very gently : continue 

 this once in ten or twelve days to the end of August. At the 

 end of March or the beginning of April following.' remove 

 them from the seed-bed to the nursery, in rows three feet 

 distant, and six or seven inches asunder ; watering them at 

 planting, and once a week for five or six weeks after. At 

 the same time in the succeeding year, remove them to another 

 nursery, in rows three feet distant, and fifteen or sixteen 

 inches in the row ; here let them remain two years ; by this 

 time they will be five or six feet high, and of a proper size 

 to transplant in exposed situations, on meagre hungry ground. 

 Dr. Hunter directs, that just before sowing, the cones should 

 be opened or torn into quarters by a knife, the point of 

 which must be thrust exactly down the centre, that the seeds 

 may not be damaged : they should then be thrashed in a 

 room. Three thousand cones will generally produce a pound 

 of good seeds; which being winnowed or sieved will be ready 

 to sow in April. When the scales of the cones are so glued 

 together that it is very difficult to separate them without 

 bruising the seeds; let them be laid in heaps six inches thick, 

 in a shady but exposed situation, till the beginning of May. 

 Then let beds four feet in breadth be prepared, newly dug ; 

 let the mould be raked to the sides, so as to form a kind of 

 ridge, to prevent the cones from falling into the alleys, which 

 should be two feet wide for the convenience of the weeders. 

 Cover these beds entirely with the cones; and if the weather 

 proves warm and dry, they will presently expand, and shed 

 the seeds. When a sufficient quantity is shed, remove the 

 cones to a second bed, first giving them a shake in a coarse 

 sieve, which will cause a considerable quantity of seed to 

 fall, especially if it be done in the middle of the day : then 

 sift fine mould a quarter of an inch thick over the whole bed. 

 If the weather should be dry, they must be gently watered, 

 and the beds kept clear of weeds. The cones may be removed 

 to a third, and even a fourth bed. The times for laying 

 them on depend on the dryness and warmth of the weather. 

 The seeds should come up thick, or else they will be apt to 

 be thrown out of the ground by the frost. The following 

 spring prick them out in beds, three inches asunder; and the 

 second spring plant them in the nursery, in, rows three feet 

 asunder, and eighteen inches in the rows. Hence they may 

 be planted out finally the second or third year after. But as 

 those trees always thrive best that are removed small, they 

 should be planted out as soon as they are of a sufficient size 

 not to be injured by weeds. Dr. Anderson, who laboured 

 for twenty-five years to turn the attention of his countrymen 

 in Scotland towards this useful tree, is of opinion that it 

 should be planted entirely by itself, because as it soon out- 

 grows other trees, where the Larches are thinly scattered, 

 they are exposed to the wind, and their tender top-shoots 

 are apt to be damaged. He therefore recommends that the 

 Larch should be made to shelter itself, by planting it very 

 thick, even so near as two feet. In a plantation made at 

 this distance, the trees have shot up with great rapidity, 

 straight, clean, and healthy. His theory is this. It has 

 been often remarked that no wood of the Fir kind, raised in 

 artificial plantations, ever equals in quality that which is 

 spontaneously produced ; the natural wood being closer in 

 the grain, harder, and deeper in colour, with fewer knots 

 in it. The reason is, that in natural woods of Larch and 

 other coniferous trees, the seeds being strewed very thick 

 upon the ground, the plants spring up very close. Being 

 straitened for room, their growth is stinted, and they 





