CLASSIFICATION. 



25 



slowly for another series ; and, not unfrequently, that it may have 

 repeated these serial changes during its life. In their continuous 

 stems and inarticulate branches, as well as in their foliage, flowers, 

 circular disks, and ligneous tissues, they are more or less related ; yet, 

 here again, we find variety j inasmuch as in Symmorphapitece we have 

 sarmentaceous or arborescent shrubs, with jointed or articulate branches, 

 so that in each and all of these characteristics we have no true affinity 

 amongst them universally prevalent, although in many cases these 

 differences are more apparent than real ; yet, in some cases, there are 

 such marked differences that neither Ahietinece nor Coniferce are truth- 

 ful or tenable as generic titles for all the species of the firs and pines. 

 I must come, therefore, to a closer relationship, though it may not 

 be a botanical one ; and that is their consanguinity, or blood-relation- 

 ship, if I may accommodate such a phrase : and here we have more real 

 affinity than in any of their other botanical characteristics ; inasmuch 

 as in their sap or resinous juice they are each and all more or less 

 closely related ; and, this being so, I select, in preference to any other 

 word, name, or term, PIISTACE^ for the generic title, or grand family 

 name, of one and all of the very numerous and dissimilar, fat and 

 sappy, rich and resinous firs and pines ; which are in truth a cognate 

 family of I^Tature's vegetable kingdom. 



Having now got my family and selected my title, I must, as a 

 matter of course, give my reason why I select it, and that is that, 

 genealogically considered, both my family and their title are, at least, as 

 old as the days when Adam was on earth ; yes, I have searched Time's 

 literary archives, and the heraldry of all nations ! and have found that 

 whatever their language, whether composed of letters, monograms, 

 signs, or symbols; whatever their phraseology, whether literal, figura- 

 tive, or hieroglyphic ; from the earliest to the latest ages of the world's 

 history, the little syllables pi, pin, or ping ; (the i long,) has been 

 used, though somewhat indiscriminately, to represent or signify rich- 

 ness or resinous. In the old Sanscrit we have it pure and simple : 

 the root pi, pinguescere, (to grow fat,) is in the participle passive 

 i^t^f I>ina, (fat.) Again, in the word ^t^"^ pivara, (fat or resinous,) 

 or (by the p being equivalent to/, and the v equivalent to u,) fiur, 

 we arrive at our own term Fir. In my most cherished language, — 

 the Greek, we have Triap, (the i long,) piar, (fat or fatness ; ) convert, 

 again, the p to /, and it is Em. Hence, too, their ttltvq, pitys, a pine 

 tree. In the Hebrew we find T]iy^% pimuh^ (coUops of fat,) Job xv, 



