PINE TREE. 



309 



the south of Brazil, describe this tree as growing there 

 to a considerable height and size, affording food to the 

 Indians with its fruits : they call it the Stone Pine, 

 probably from the tree of that name which grows in the 

 south of Spain, and bears nuts also, but different in 

 quahty and size*." 



Dr. Hunter quotes a passage from Martial, in which 

 he represents it as dangerous to stand under the Stone 

 Pine, on account of the magnitude of its cones : 



" Poma sumus Cybeles ; procul hinc discede, viator, 

 Ne cadat in misenim nostra ruina caput t." 



" High and mighty fruit are we. 

 Apples of great Cybele. 

 Speed thee, traveller, or thy crown 

 Brings the pelting ruin down." 



The Pine was sacred to Cybele, who turned Atys into 

 that tree : 



Et succincta comas, hirsutaque vertice pinus ; 

 Grata Deum matri ; siquidem Cybeleius Attis 

 Exuit hac hominem, truncoque induruit illo." 



Ovid, Met. lib. x. 



And that rough tree whose branching foliage nods. 

 Loved by the mighty Mother of the gods. 

 Since youthful Attis, to her fondness blind, 

 Slept in its cone, and hardened in its rind." 



Dr. Orger's Ovid. 



The Pine is an exceedingly hardy tree, growing upon 

 cold and mountainous places : " It is pretty," says Pliny, 



* Travels into Chili, over the Andes, p. 52. 

 t The word pomum, in the Latin tongue, is applied to the fruit 

 of all sorts of trees. In EngHsh, fir cones are still called fir apples' 



