IN EXTRA-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 239 



Pimpinella saxifraga, Linne, 



Europe, North and Middle Asia. A perennial herb ; its root used 

 in medicine ; a peculiar volatile oil can be distilled from the root. 

 P. magna (L.) is a closely allied species, and P. nigra (W.) is a 

 variety. The root of the last is particularly powerful. 



Pimpinella Sisarum, Bentham. (Slum Sisarum, Linne.) 



East Asia. A perennial herb. The bunches of small tubers 

 afford an excellent culinary vegetable. The taste is sweet and 

 somewhat celery -like. The roots endure frost. 



Pinus Abies, Du Roi.* (Pinus Picea, Linne.) 



Silver Fir, Tanne. In Middle Europe up to 50 north latitude, 

 forming dense forests. A fine tree, already the charm of the 

 ancients, attaining 200 feet in height, and 20 feet in circumference 

 of stem, reaching the age of 300 years. It furnishes a most valu- 

 able timber for building as well as furniture, and in respect to 

 lightness, toughness, and elasticity it is even more esteemed than 

 the Norway Spruce, but is not so good for fuel or for charcoal. 

 It is very pale, light, not very resinous, and is mostly employed for 

 the finer works of joiners and cabinet-makers, for sound-boards of 

 musical instruments, largely for toys, also for lucifer matches, for 

 coopers' and turners' work, further for house-building, and for masts 

 and spars. It also yields a fine white resin and the Strasburg 

 turpentine, similar to the Venetian. Besides the above normal 

 formal form, the following two main varieties occur : P. Abies var. 

 Cephalonica, Parlatore (P. Cephalonica, Endl.). Greece, 3,000 to 

 5,000 feet above the sea. A tree 60 feet high, with a stem circum- 

 ference of 10 feet. The wood is very hard and durable, and much 

 esteemed for building. General Napier mentions that in pulling 

 down some old houses at Argostoli, which had been built 150 to 

 300 years, all the wood-work of this fir was found as hard as oak 

 and perfectly sound. P. Abies var. Nordmanniana, Parlatore 

 (P. Nordmanniana, Steven), Crimea and Circassia, 6,000 feet above 

 the sea. This is one of the most imposing firs, attaining a height 

 of 100 feet, with a perfectly straight stem. It furnishes a valuable 

 building timber. The Silver Fir is desirable for mountain forests. 

 It will grow on sand, but only half as fast as P. Pinaster. 



Pinus alba, Aiton. 



White Spruce. From Canada to Carolina, up to the highest 

 mountains. It resembles P. picea, but is smaller, at most 50 feet 

 high. The bark richer in tannin than that of the Hemlock Spruce. 

 The timber well adapted for deal boards, spars, and many other 

 purposes, but on the whole inferior to Black Spruce. The tree 

 grows in damp situations or swampy ground. Eligible for Alpine 

 country. 



