CLASS XXI, ORDER VIII. ] PINUS. 1223 
A tall straight tree, clothed with thick ‘rough scaly bark. Leaves 
narrow, linear, striated, concave above, convex beneath, a dull 
glaucous green, about two inches long, growing in pairs, enveloped at 
the base in a membranous sheath, crowded at the end of the branches, 
arranged in a spiral manner, and leaving a rough scar in the bark. 
Barren catkins terminal, naked, of numerous crowded stamens, with 
short filaments, and erect yellow anthers, of two cells, bursting length- 
wise, and crowned with a short membranous crest, from the end of 
the catkin a tuft of leaves soon appear, and the stamens fall away. 
Fertile catkins mostly in pairs, pedunculated, and erect when young, 
recurved and pendulous when in fruit, of an ovate conical shape, 
about two inches long, tuberculated in a tesselated manner with its 
imbricated scales, hard, woody, at length separating for the escape of 
the seeds. 
Habitat.— Highlands of Scotland, in vast natural forests. 
Tree; flowering in May and June. 
The Pinus sylvestris, or Scotch Fir, is so called from its being our 
only indigenous species of the genus; it forms immense woods in the 
Highlands of Scotland. 
“* Where o’er the rock the scarcely waving pine, 
Fills the broad shade with a religious awe.” 
Tt is a native also of the Alps, and northern parts of Germany, as 
well as Sweden and Norway. It is a tall stately looking tree, with a 
port of much grandeur and beauty, having a straight trunk, often of 
very large dimensions. Sir W.J. Hooker mentions a tree cut down 
in the Duke of Gordon’s forests, which was sawn into planks, mea- 
suring five and half feet in diameter. They live to the age not 
uufrequently of four or five hundred years. It will grow in almost 
any kind of soil; but the wood of those grown in the Lowlands is 
said to be inferior to that grown upon the mountains of the High- 
lands. There are two varieties which are common, one producing 
the white and the other the red deal of commerce—woods applied to 
many useful purposes, too well known to require to be enumerated. 
Resin is obtained from this tree by taking out a portion of bark 
in the month of May near the base of the trees most vigo- 
rous and exposed to the sun. The resinous juice soon begins to 
flow, and is received into vessels. In this manner from six to 
twelve pounds of the juice may be obtained annually for centuries 
from the same tree. These juices are afterwards purified by being 
put into casks, perforated at the bottom, and exposed to the sun; 
when the melted resin runs through, it is purified of all extraneous 
matters, as bits of bark, wood, leaves, &c., and is fit for sale. From 
this, Oil of Turpentine is obtained, by distiliing it with water in a 
common still. The oil floats on the water in the receiver, from which 
it is easily separated, and kept in bottles for use; that which remains 
