JsTONE PINE. 259 



MRS. F. 



The word pine is derived from pen or pin, a crag or stony 

 mountain, upon which the pine delights to grow: but who 

 can tell me what that large fir tree is on the right? 



ESTHER. 

 Is it not the stone pine (Pinus pinea^l 



Stone Pine. 

 MRS. F. 



It is: this is the tree which produces the large seeds which 

 are so much eaten in Italy, where they are called pignoli. 

 In Naples particularly, they are extensively used, and the 

 people in the streets may be seen roasting the cones before 

 the fire, in order to cause the scales to expand, and enable 

 them to get at the seeds, which are as large as almonds.* 

 This is the cone which we see placed in the Thyrsus of Bac- 

 chus, it being used as his emblem, from the circumstance of 

 the ancients putting turpentine into their wines, in order to 

 give them a flavour. 



* The seeds of Jlraucaria imbricata form the entire subsistence 

 of an Indian tribe, who harvest them, and bury them in pits for 

 winter use. 



