piso] 



ET)e Crra^urn nf 23otanj). 



896 



a scrambling tree with reclining thorny 

 branches, is described as offering serious 

 annoyance to travellers in the West Indies 

 by its strong hooked spines, which become 

 entangled in the clothes or flesh of the 

 wayfarer. The glutinous bur-like fruit ad- 

 heres to the wings of birds to such an ex- 

 tent as to prevent them from flying, and 

 allow of their easy capture. [M. T. M.] 



PISSABBD. Taraxacum Dens-leonis. 



PISSBLUME. Armaria vulgaris. 



PISSENLIT. (Fr.) Taraxacum. 



PISSE-SANG. (Fr.) A vulgar name for 

 Fumitory. 



PISTACHE. (Fr.) The Pistachio-nut. 

 — DE TERRE. Arachis lnjpogma. 



PISTACHIER. (Fr.) Pistacia. 



PISTACIA. The Pistacias or Turpentine 

 trees form a genus of Anacardiacece, dis- 

 persed through the temperate zone of the 

 northern hemisphere, extending in the 

 Old World from the south of Europe and 

 North Africa through Western Asia and 

 the north of India to China, while a soli- 

 tary species is found in Mexico. They are 

 mostly small trees, seldom more than 

 twenty or thirty feet high, and have pin- 

 nate leaves with or without a terminal leaf- 

 let, and axillary panicles or racemes of 

 small unisexual apetalous flowers, those 

 bearing the female being looser than the 

 male, and the two sexes being produced on 

 separate trees: the males five-parted, with 

 a stamen opposite and inserted into each 

 segment ; the females three or four-parted, 

 closely investing a one- (rarely three-) cell- 

 ed ovary. The fruits are dry egg-shaped 

 drupes, containing a one-seeded stone with 

 a bony shell, the seed having thick fleshy 

 oily cotyledons. 



P. Zentiscus, the Mastic tree, is a native 

 of Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and 

 Western Asia, It is a small tree about 



Pistacia Lentiscus. 



fifteen or twenty feet high, with evergreen 

 pinnate wing-stalked leaves without a ter- 

 minal leaflet, Mastic or Mastich is the re- 

 sin of the tree, and is obtained by making 



transverse incisions in the bark.f rom which 

 it exudes in drops and hardens into small 

 semitransparent tears. It is principally 

 produced in the island of Scio and in Asiatic 

 Turkey, andis consumed in large quantities 

 by the Turks for chewing to sweeten the 

 breath and strengthen the gums : hence its 

 name, which is derived from viasticare, 'to 

 chew.' In this country it is used for var- 

 nishing pictures, and by dentists for stop- 

 ping teeth. 



P. Terebinthus, the Ohio or Cyprus Tur- 

 pentine tree, is likewise found in Southern 

 Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia. It has 

 deciduous pinnate leaves, usually with 

 three pairs of lance-shaped leaflets and an 

 ! odd terminal one ; and produces small 

 dark-purple roundish furrowed fruits. 

 The turpentine flows from incisions made 

 in the trunk, and soon becomes thick and 

 tenacious, and ultimately hardens. It is 

 collected in the islands of the Greek and 

 Turkish Archipelagos, but seldom comes 

 to this country. Curious horn-shaped galls, 

 caused by the punctures of insects, are 

 found in large numbers upon the Terebinth 

 I tree, and are collected for dyeing and tan- 

 j ning purposes— one of the varieties of Mo- 

 ! rocco leather being tanned with them. 

 I P. vera, the Pistacia tree, which yields 

 [ the eatable Pistachio-nuts, is a native of 

 j Western Asia, from whence it has been 

 I introduced into and is greatly cultivated 

 i in Southern Europe. Its leaves are com- 

 i posed of three or five (occasionally one) 

 i broad egg-shaped leaflets; and its fruits 

 ! are much larger than in the last, oval, 

 | sometimes nearly an inch long, and con- 

 taining a seed with bright-green cotyle- 

 dons. Pistachio-nuts are greatly eaten by 

 the Turks and Greeks, and also in the south 

 of Europe, either simply dried like almonds, 

 or made into articles of confectionary. 

 Galls are also collected from this and other 

 species ; those from Cabul and Bokhara, 

 j called Gool-i-Pista, being the produce of 

 Pistacia Khinjuk. It is probable that the 

 Chinese Galls (Woo-pei-tsze) may also be 

 obtained from one of the species. [A. S.] 



PISTIACE JE. (Zemnacew, Lemnads, Duck- 

 iceeds.) A natural order of monocotyledons 

 belonging to Lindley's aral alliance of En- 

 dogens. They are floating plants, with len- 

 ticular or lobed leaves or fronds, hearing 

 one or two monoecious flowers enclosed in 

 a spatbe, but with no perianth,; stamens 

 definite, often monadelphous; ovary one- 

 celled ; ovules one or more, erect orhorizon- 

 tal. Fruit indehiscent, membranous, one 

 or more seeded. They are natives both of 

 cool and warm regions. Pistia and Lemma 

 are examples of the few genera, which 

 comprise some two dozen species Lenina 

 forms the green covering of pools in Bri- 

 tain, while Pistia floats on ponds in warm 

 countries. [J H. B.] 



PISTIA Stratiotes is a very common 

 tropical water-weed, out of which many 

 species and even separate genera have 

 been made. It is referred to the same order 

 as duckweed (Lemna), whence it is some- 

 times called Tropical Duckweed, but is 



