THE STONE PINE. 
Pi'nus Pi'nea L. 
Puiny, 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 were 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 tesselle ; and the buds are 
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