i.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 29 



Theophrastus also remarks, as a peculiarity of 

 this tree, that when a branch is broken or cut off, 

 a protuberance forms round the cicatrix, which is 

 black, and of such hardness, that the Arcadians 

 made cups out of it ; adding, that the softer the 

 wood is, the harder is the protuberance. 



Modern writers speak of this as a swelling in the 

 bark of the tree, attributing it to an insect, which 

 by irritating the vegetable tissue determines a flow 

 of resinous matters to the part d . 



The next species of Fir noticed by Pliny is the 

 Pinus, the TT'LTVS of Dioscorides. The former writer 

 states, that it was common about Rome in his time, 

 that its nuts or seeds were eaten, and that it sends 

 out branches from the top. These particulars would 

 lead us to identify the tree with the Pinus pinea, or 

 Stone Pine, which forms so conspicuous a figure in 

 the Roman landscape ; and this suspicion is con- 

 firmed by a letter of the younger Pliny, who in his 

 account of the great eruption of Vesuvius, which 

 destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, compares the 

 smoke which rose from the volcano to this Pine in 

 point of shape. Now the vapour which ascends 

 from a volcano resembles the Stone Pine in this 

 respect, that it runs first in one narrow vertical 

 trunk, and then spreads itself out laterally on all 

 sides in a conical form. Such is the case with 

 the Pinus pinea, which has no branches on the 

 lower part of its trunk, but sends out numerous 

 ones in an umbrella form from its summit. 



d See Sell>y on Forest Trees. 



