PIN 
PINK, a vessel used at sea, masted and 
rigged like other ships, only that this is 
built with a round stern ; the bends and 
ribs compassing so as that her ribs bulge 
out very much. This disposition renders 
the pinks difficult to be boarded, and also 
enables tliem to carry greater burthens 
than others, whence they are often used 
for store-ships, and hospital-ships in the 
fleet. 
Pink. See Dianthus. 
PINNA, in natural history, nacre, a 
genus of the Vermes Testacea class and 
order: animal a Umax : shell bivalve, fragile, 
upright, gaping at one end, and furnished 
with a beard ; hinge without teeth, the 
valves united into one. There are eighteen 
species. The inhabitants of these shells 
produce a large quantity of byssus, which is 
woven by the Italians into a kind of silk : 
the shells themselves are generally found 
standing erect in the smoother waters of 
the bays, with the larger end a little open : 
tlie fish of several of the species affords a 
rich food. 
PINNACE, a small vessel used at sea, 
with a square stern, having sails and oars, 
and carrying three masts, chiefly used as a 
scout for intelligence, and for landing of, 
men, &c. One of the boats belonging to a 
great man of war, serving to carry the offi- 
cers to and from the shore, is also called 
the pinnace. 
PINNACLE, in architecture, the top or 
' roof of an house, terminated in a point. 
This kind of roof, among the ancients, was 
appropriated to temples; their ordinaiy 
roofs were all flat, or made in the platform 
way. It was from the pinnacle that the 
form of the pediment took its rise. 
PINNATED leaves. See Botany. 
PINT, a vessel or measure used in esti- 
mating the quantity of liquids, and even 
sometimes of dry things. It is the eighth 
part of a gallon, both in ale and wine mea- 
sure; but the gallon being different, the 
pint must also differ. The wine pint of 
pure water weighs almost seventeen ounces 
avoirdupois, and the ale pint contains a lit- 
tle more than twenty ounces. The Scotch 
pint is equal to three English pints. 
PINUS, in botany, pine tree, a genus of 
the Monoecia Monadelphia class and order. 
Natural order of Coniferae. Essential cha- 
racter ; male, calyx four-leaved ; corolla 
none ; stamina very many, with naked an- 
thers : female, calyx strobiles, with a two- 
flowered scale ; corolla none ; pistil one ; 
nut with a membranaceous wing. There 
PIN 
are -twenty-one species; we shall notice 
some of the most remarkable. 
P. cedrus, cedar of Lebanon, has a gene- 
ral striking character of growth so peculiar 
to itself, that no other tree can be mistaken 
for it ; it is placed by Linnaeus along with 
the larch, in the same genus with the firs 
and pines ; it agrees with the former in its 
foliation, with the latter in being evergreen ; 
the leaves resemble those of the larch, but 
are longer and closer set, erect, and perpe- 
tually green ; the cones are tacked and 
ranged between the branch leaves, in such 
order as to give it an artificial and very cu- 
rious appearance, and at a little distance 
a beautiful effect; these cones have the bases 
rounder, or rather thicker, and with blunter 
points, the whole circumzoned with broad, 
thick scales, which adhere together in ex- 
act series to the summit, where they are 
smaller ; but the entire lorication is smooth- 
er couched than those of the firs : within 
these repositories, under the scale, nestle ' 
the small nutting seeds, of a pear shape. 
Many wonderful properties are ascribed to 
the wood of this celebrated tree, such as its 
resisting putrefaction, destroying noxious 
insects, continuing a thousand or two thou- 
sand years sound, yielding an oil famous for 
preserving books and writings. 
The P. sylvestris, wild pine tree, is called 
in Britain the Scotch fir, from its growing 
naturally in the mountains of Scotland ; it 
is common in most parts of Europe, parti- 
cularly the northern ; the wood is the red ' 
or yellow deal, which is the most durable 
of any of the kinds yet known ; the cones 
are small, pyramidal, ending in narrow 
points ; they are of a light colour ; the seeds 
are small. In a favourable soil, this tree 
grows to the height of eighty feet, with a 
straight trunk ; the bark is of a brownish 
colour, full of crevices ; the leaves issue 
from a white, truncated, little sheath, in 
pairs; they are linear, acuminate, entire, 
striated, convex on one side, flat on the 
other, mucronate, bright green, smooth, 
from an inch and a half to two inches in 
length ; the scales of the male catkins roll 
back at top, and are feathered ; the inner 
and upper scales of the cones gradually ter- 
minate in a short awn, the lower scales 
have none. Few trees have been applied 
to more uses than this ; the tallest and 
straightest afford masts to our navy ; the 
timber is resinous, durable, and applicable 
to numberless domestic purposes; from the 
trunk and branches of this and others of the 
genus, tar and pitch are obtained ; by inci- 
