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PISTACIA TREE. 
Diœcia pentandria. Linn. 
Terebinthaceæ. Juss. 
Pistacia veea. P. foliis impari-pinnatis ; foliolis sulovatis , recurvis, coraceis. 
The Pistacia Tree is indigenous to Asia Minor and is particularly abun- 
dant in Syria. It equals, and sometimes exceeds, 25 or 30 feet in height, 
and has heavy, crooked limbs clad in a thick, grayish bark, and large 
leaves composed of one or two pair of coriaceous leaflets, with a terminal 
odd one. This vegetable belongs to the class of dioecious plants whose 
sexes are borne by different stocks. The barren flowers are minute and 
hardly apparent, and the fertile ones are likewise small and of a greenish 
color. Its fruit consists of thin-shelled oval-acuminate nuts, about the size 
of an olive, which are collected in bunches, and are commonly yielded in 
profusion. They are of a more agreeable flavor than the hazel-nut or 
almond, and are annually exported to those parts of Europe and Asia 
where the trees do not flourish. 
The Pistacia Tree succeeds in dry, calcareous, stony grounds, but shuns 
a sandy and a humid soil. In forming plantations, care must be taken to 
possess trees of different sexes, without which the fructification is impossi- 
ble ; one male should be allotted to five or six females, and to avoid mis- 
take, young grafted stocks should be procured, or suckers from the foot 
of an old tree. 
The wood is hard, resinous, excellent for fuel, and fitted for economical 
purposes. 
According to Pliny, pistacia-nuts were first brought to Rome about the 
reign of Tiberius, by Yitellius, Governor of Syria, and probably the tree 
was introduced into Italy at the same period. It has long been cultivated 
in Spain, Portugal, and the south of France, and, when protected by a wall 
and favored with a southern exposure, it yields fruit even at Paris. It is 
less delicate than the Orange Tree, and prospers in the same soil and 
climate with the Olive. Though it offers less powerful inducements than 
