NATURAL HISTORY. 



235 



the modern inhabitants have derived a few names of fishes as well as 

 birds. In some instances, the ancient words slightly altered have 

 been retained, even by the Turks ; the xe^aXo? is still called Cephal- 

 balluk* by them, and Scorpit-balluk is the name which they give to 

 the Scorpaena Porcus. » 



PLANTS OF GREECE. 



MEDICINAL AND ECONOMICAL USES. 

 iFROM DR. SIBTHORP'S PAPERS.'} 



1. Pinus Maritima. llevKoc, one of the most useful trees in Greece ; 

 it furnishes a resin (^t/^), tar and pitch (TriWa), all of considerable 

 importance for ceconomical purposes. Throughout Attica the f wine 

 is preserved from becoming acid by the means of the resin which is 

 employed in the proportion of an oke and a half, to 20 okes of 

 wine. The tar and pitch for ship building are taken from this tree, 

 and the ritW, the Pinus Pinea. The resinous parts of the wood of 

 the Uiuxoq are cut into small pieces and serve for candles, called 

 Acchot. The cones, kovvoi, are sometimes put into the wine barrels. 



Notes by the Editor. 



1. Aufact, a corruption of the ancient word 8«8ej, see Lucian de M. Pereg. Ligna 

 arboris picis, d'Orville Char. ii. 489. We find in Dr. Hunt's journal the same word 

 §a§ia, applied .by the inhabitants of Mount Ida to the torches of pine-wood. 



* Balluk in Turkish signifies Jish. 



f A practice very general throughout Greece, but which is very prevalent at Athens, 

 may perhaps in some degree account for the connection of the fircone (surmounting the 

 Thyrsus) with the worship of Bacchus. Incisions are made in the fir-trees for the purpose 

 of obtaining the turpentine which distils copiously from the wound. This juice is mixed 

 with the new wine in large quantities: the Greeks supposing that it would be impossible to 

 keep it any length of time without this mixture. The wine has in consequence a very 

 peculiar taste, but is by no means unpleasant after a little use. This, as we learn from 

 Plutarch, was an ancient custom (Sympos. Quest. 3. and 4. p. 528. Ed. Wytten.); the 

 Athenians, therefore, might naturally have placed the fircone in the hands of Bacchus. — 

 (From Lord Aberdeen's Journals.) 



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