An Account of Plants, fyc. 



the extremity of the leaves, by puncturing the cuticle, which 

 becomes fungous, and swells into fleshy follicles of a bright 

 scarlet hue, strong resinous odour, and clammy feel, full of 

 turpentine. These are so abundant, sometimes, as to cover 

 the whole surface of the tree, and give it the appearance of 

 bearing rich flowers or fruit. The trunk of the tree, when 

 perforated, yields abundantly that fine resinous oil called 

 Cyprus Turpentine. For its aromatic quality, the Greeks 

 and Armenians plant the tree in their cemeteries, as the Turks 

 do the Cypress. Here the Turks make them butts to discharge 

 their topheks or pistols at ; the stems, therefore, are all per- 

 forated, and continually, in the season, stream with turpen- 

 tine. There is one in the British Palace Garden, which 

 has been noticed by Sestini and others, for its size and re- 

 markable beauty : it measures twelve feet in circumference, 

 rises nearly as high as the top of the palace, and shades a 

 circle of one hundred and eighty yards. Notwithstanding 

 their size, they are sometimes parasitical, growing out of other 

 trees. A phenomenon of this kind exists at the promontory 

 of Chalcaedon, where an enormous Pistacia is growing out of 

 a more enormous Cypress; and this is noticed by Andreossi, 

 m his work sur le Bosphore. They grow every where among 

 the ruins of the wall of Constantinople, particularly in the 

 breach where the Turks entered; « marking," as Clarke 

 says, « the spot where the last of the Paleologi fell." * 



Pistacia Lentiscus. 

 This plant, called by Theophrastus "f* and Dioscorides,J 

 2wm* and yielding the pure transparent gum, M«rr<fc«, was 



* Clarke's Travels, part 2, sect. 3, ch. xv. f Lib. ix. cap. 1. + Lib. i. cap. 89. 



