16 
PINUS SYLVESTRIS. 
pointed, hard, woody cone, the dry scales of which ultimately open 
to allow the dispersion of the winged seeds. This tree is said to live 
to the age of four or five hundred years : the wood, as is well known, 
is used for various purposes. 
Every part of the Pinus Sylvestris, as well as all the other species 
of pine, and particularly those which we shall have occasion to 
notice, abounds with a resinous juice, which, in the different species, 
possesses the same general qualities, but presenting some varieties, 
according to the nature of the species, which we shall notice under 
the proper head. The productions of the genus Pinus have been 
arranged into— 1st. Those which exude spontaneously, as the Thus 
of the London, or the Resina Alba of the Dublin Pharraacopceia, 
from the Pinus Sylvestris and Pinus Abies; 2d. Those procured 
by wounding the tree, as turpentine from almost all the species ; 
3d. Those procured by decoction and distillation, as the Spiritus 
Terehinthince, and Resina Flava ; and 4th. Those which are pro- 
cured by the action of fire, as Pix Liquida, &c. 
Terebinthina Vulgaris, or Common Turpentine. Genu- 
ine turpentine, properly speaking, is the production of the Pistacia 
Terebinthus of Linnaeus, a native of the eastern parts of Europe, 
and belonging to the class Dioecia, order Pentandria ; but the term 
has been generalised, and applied to that peculiar liquid resin yielded 
by the genus Pinus, possessing the same general properties with the 
true Terebinthus, though modified by the particular species of tree 
from which it is obtained. This has given rise to the various appel- 
lations of Chian turpentine, Venice turpentine, common turpentine, 
&c. 
Common turpentine is obtained from the Pinus Sylvestris in the 
following manner series of wounds are made through the bark, 
into the wood, beginning at the bottom of the tree, and gradually 
ascending until a stripe of the bark about nine feet long is removed, 
which is generally effected in about four years ; the juice which 
flows from these wounds during summer is collected in a small cavity 
formed in the earth underneath the incisions ; from this it is occa- 
sionally removed into proper reservoirs for purification. The same 
operation is repeated from time to time on diff'erent sides of the tree, 
allowing the former wounds to close up ; a tree worked in this way 
will furnish turpentine for nearly a century; trees with the thickest 
bark, and those which are most exposed to the sun yield the 
greatest quantity. As the trees exude very little juice during cold 
weather, the incisions are only made between the months of May 
and September; in winter the old incisions become covered with a 
