PISTACHIA TEREBINTHUS. 
103 
Gen. Char. Male. Calyx five-cleft. Corolla none. 
Female. Calyx three-cleff. Corolla none. 
Styles three. Drupe one-seeded. 
Spec. Char. Leaves composed of from two to four pair of 
leaflets with an odd one. Leaflets ovate, lanceolate. 
This species of Pistachia* is a native of Barbary and the south 
of Europe ; it is cultivated in the Islands of Chios and Cyprus, 
from whence the turpentine imported into this country is chiefly 
collected. This tree was first cultivated in this country about the 
year 1730,t aud we are told that when planted against a wall it 
bears our winters very well, flowering in June and July. This tree 
rises to the height of from twenty to thirty feet, sending off many long 
spreading branches, covered with a smooth bark ; the leaves are 
pinnate, composed of three or four pair of ovate, lance-shaped, 
veined, entire, opposite leaflets, with an odd one at the end ; the 
flowers are male and female on different trees : the males are in 
amentums ; the calyx is divided into five small ovate segments ; the 
filaments, which are four or five in number, are very short, and 
support large, erect, quadrangular, brown coloured anthers. The 
female flowers are placed in a common peduncle in alternate order ; 
the calyx is divided into three small segments ; the germen is ovate, 
supporting two or three styles, crowned with reflected, clubbed 
stigmas ; the fruit is of ^ reddish colour, subovate, smooth, and gib- 
bous on one side towards the top. 
We are told by Tournefort,^ that the Cyprus or Chian turpentine 
(which this tree furnishes,) is procured by wounding the bark of the 
trunk in many places, leaving a space of about three inches between 
each wound ; from these the turpentine issues, and flows upon 
stones, which are placed at the bottom of the tree to receive it, and 
upon which it is allowed to remala during the night to condense ; in 
the morning, before sun-rise, it is scraped oflF. In order to free it 
from all extraneous admixture, it is again liquefied by the sun's heat, 
and passed through a strainer. These trees yield but a very small 
* riffMvios, Dioscoridis. 
t Alton's Hort. Kew. 
t Voyage du Levant, lom. i. p. 145. 
