PISTACHIO. 



[96] 



Family: TEREBINTHACEAE [ Translator's note: now ANACARDIACEAE]. 

 Reproductive system: DIOECY, PENTANDRY. 



The cultivated pistachio tree, Pistacia vera, Poir., is a tree with a trunk twenty or 

 thirty feet high. Its spreading branches bear leaves with very long petioles; the leaves 

 consist of three, four or five oval entire leaflets green on both sides and almost sessile. 

 The male and female flowers are on separate trees. The male flowers have five stamens 

 and no corolla. The female flowers are in loose clusters and have no corollas. They 

 consist of an ovary with three styles that turns into a dry oval olive-shaped drape that's 

 creased, reddish on one side, and contains an oil-yielding kernel with a pleasant flavor. 



FLOWERS: in April and May. 



RANGE: Syria; it was brought to Italy around the end of the reign of the Emperor 

 Tiberius. Since that time it has spread and has been naturalized in the woodlands of our 

 southern provinces. Two varieties are cultivated in Montpellier and also in Paris in open 

 ground. 



NOMENCLATURE. Pistacia is a word derived from the Arabic name foustuq, 

 fistuk. German, pistazienbaum. English, pistachio-tree. Spanish, alfocigo. Provencal, 

 petelin. 



USES. Pistachios are eaten just like sweet almonds. They're served at the table, 

 and they are ingredients in all kinds of sugared sweets as well as in creams and ices. They 

 formerly were utilized in medicine, but are not much used nowadays. They can be given 

 either alone or together with pine nuts to consumptives and to those stricken with 

 catarrhal ailments. They are prepared as emulsions of twelve to twenty of them in a 

 pound of water. 



The turpentine tree, Pistachio, terebinthus, Linn,, 



