PISTACIA. 



TEREBINTACE-ffi. DICECIA PENTANDRIA. 



The derivation of this name is not known. 

 French, pistachier ; Italian, pistacchio. 



THE Pistacia, or Pistachio-nut tree, called by our old 

 writers the Fisticke-nut tree, is a native of the Levant, 

 where it grows twenty-five or thirty feet high ; the bark 

 of the stem, and of the old branches, is russet-coloured, 

 but that of the young branches is of a light brown. 



There are three kinds distinguished as different species, 

 which some writers consider only as varieties : the offici- 

 nalis, the narbonensis, and the vera : in the latter, the 

 leaves are composed of two or three pairs of leaflets, 

 terminated by an odd one ; they are nearly egg-shaped, 

 and turn back at the edges. The leaves of the P. qfficina- 

 Iis 9 or Common Pistacia, have generally three, but some- 

 times four leaflets, of a dark green colour ; the P. Narlo- 

 nensis has three or five roundish leaflets, of a light green. 



In all these, the leaves, when bruised, emit an odour 

 like that of the nut itself. 



Although one of these species has been named Nar- 

 bonensis, and Linnaeus affirms that the Common Pistacia 

 is a native of Sicily, they are generally supposed to have 

 been brought to Europe originally from the East. Pliny 

 says that the Emperor Vitellius introduced the Pistacia 

 into Italy from Syria, when he was legate in that pro- 

 vince*. 



* See Martyn's Miller. 



