chap. cxin. coni'fer^e. pi'nus. 2229 



resinous, and very light. It is used, in Italy and the south of France, in 

 carpentry and joinery, and for gutters, pumps, and covering the sides of 

 ships ; and Olivier informs us that the Turks use it for masts. The kernel of 

 the fruit has a taste which approaches to that of the hazel nut, and, in 

 France and Italy, is much esteemed for the dessert. Sir George Staunton 

 mentions that the kernels of the stone pine are also much relished by the 

 Chinese. In Italy, they are put into several kinds of ragouts, and they 

 prove excellent in sugarplums, instead of almonds. In Provence, they are 

 extensively consumed along with Corinth raisins, the dried currants of the 

 shops. The kernels require to be kept in the cone till they are about to 

 be used, because they become speedily rancid when taken out and exposed 

 to the air. In the cone, they will preserve their vitality, their freshness, and 

 their taste, five or six years. They may also be preserved in salt ; but in this 

 case they lose great part of their flavour. In Pliny's time they were pre- 

 served in honey. They were formerly much used in medicine, but this is 

 no longer the case. They are very eagerly sought after by squirrels, rats, 

 and dormice. The squirrels which live in pine forests are chiefly nourished 

 by these kernels; and they contribute towards the dissemination of the 

 seeds, by striking the cones against the rocks to make the scales open. The 

 crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is the principal bird that lives on the kernels 

 of the stone pine. To get out the kernel, the bird places the under part of 

 its bill under the scale, in order to raise it up, and then separates it with the 

 upper part of its bill. The crossbill is a solitary gloomy bird, which is 

 chiefly found in pine forests, where it makes its nest in the middle of Janu- 

 ary, in the branches of the largest pines, fixing it there with the resin of the 

 trees, and coating it externally with the same material, in such a manner as 

 to prevent it from being penetrated by either rain or snow. The kernels of 

 the stone pine are occasionally brought to the dessert in England ; for which 

 purpose the cones are regularly imported by the fruiterers. 



As a tree, the stone pine may be considered very ornamental where it 

 grows freely, or where it has grown up with an erect trunk, and attained 

 considerable age. Gilpin speaks highly in its favour ; but we cannot help 

 thinking that he must either allude chiefly to what he has seen in prints or 

 pictures, or to the pinaster, because we have never seen or heard of any 

 stone pine in England of a sufficient size to justify his description : at all 

 events, it is obvious that his ideas were not clear as to these trees ; because 

 he speaks of the pinaster, the cluster pine, and the stone pine, as three dis- 

 tinct kinds. From specimens and dimensions that have been sent to us from 

 different parts of the country, we find that the pinaster is very frequently 

 supposed to be the stone pine. Indeed, it may be considered as the stone 

 pine of Britain ; and, as Gilpin's observations are almost as applicable to it 

 as to the stone pine, and are, besides, beautiful in themselves, we shall give 

 them at length : — 



" After the cedar, the stone pine deserves our notice. It is not indigenous 

 to our soil, but, like the cedar, it is in some degree naturalised ; though in 

 England it is rarely more than a puny half-formed resemblance of the Ita- 

 lian pine. The soft clime of Italy alone gives birth to the true picturesque 

 pine. There it always suggests ideas of broken porticos, Ionic pillars, 

 triumphal arches, fragments of old temples, and a variety of classic ruins, 

 which in Italian landscape it commonly adorns. The stone pine promises 

 little, in its infancy, in point of picturesque beauty : it does not, like most of the 

 fir species, give an early indication of its future form. In its youth, it is 

 dwarfish and round-headed, with a short stem, and has rather the shape of 

 a full-grown bush than of an increasing tree. As it grows older, it does not 

 soon deposit its formal shape. It is long a bush, though somewhat more 

 irregular, and with a longer stem ; but, as it attains maturity, its picturesque 

 form increases fast. Its lengthening stem assumes, commonly, an easy sweep. 

 It seldom, indeed, deviates much from a straight line ; but that gentle devia- 

 tion is very graceful, and, above all other lines, difficult to imitate. If acci- 



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