THE STONE PINE. 



Pi'nus Pi'nea L. 



Pliny, speaking in his " Natural History " of the 

 Pinus, which he identifies with the pitus of Dios- 

 corides, says that it was common about Rome in 

 his time, that its nuts Avere eaten, and that it sends 

 out branches at the top. This description would of 

 itself make us identify the tree in question with 

 Pinus Pinea, which is to-day a conspicuous feature 

 in the landscape of Rome ; but it is curiously con- 

 firmed by a letter of the younger Pliny describing the 

 great eruption of Vesuvius in a.d. 79 which destroyed 

 the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii and was fatal 

 to his uncle the naturalist. In this letter he compares 

 to this Pine the form of the mass of smoke which rose 

 from the volcano, and nothing could well be more 

 apt. Just as the mingled steam and dust rise from 

 the crater in a vertical column, and then, under the 

 influence of gravitation, spread out laterally on all 

 sides, so does the Umbrella Pine, as it is called in 

 Italy, rise unbranched to a considerable height and 

 then send out its branches in a more or less flat 

 mass at its summit. 



The Cluster and Stone Pines have several points 

 in common. In both the needles are long, straight, 

 rigid, and comparatively broad ; the cones are large 

 and pointed, and have pyramidal apices in the 

 centres of their rhomboid tessella? ; and the buds are 



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