P I S T A C I A. 
PISS'ER, a mountain of the county of Tyrol: four 
miles fouth-eaft of Landeck. 
PISS'OS, a town of France, in the department of the 
Landes: twenty-feven miles north-weft of Tartas. 
PISS'POT, /. A chamber-pot. 
PISSTOT BA'Y, a bay in the ftraits of Magellan. 
Lat, 53.14. S. Ion. 75. 12. W. 
PISTA'CHIA, Pistachio, or FiSTic-nut, f. See Pis- 
tacia. — Piflacliios were known to the ancients, and the 
Arabians call them pejluch and fefiuch, and we fometimes 
fijiich nuts. Hill. — Pijlachios, fo they be good, and not 
mufty, joined with almonds, are an excellent nourifher. 
Bacon's Nat Hift. 
PISTA'CIA, /. [Greek; derivation unknown.] The 
PisTACHiA,TuRPENTiNE,andMASTiC; in botany, a genus 
of the clafs dioecia, order pentandria, natural order of 
amentaceae, (terebintacese, JuJJ.) Generic characters— 
I. Male. Calyx: ament, loofe, fcattered, compofed of 
fmall one-flowered fcalelets: perianthium proper, five- 
cleft, very fmall. Corolla none. Stamina: filaments 
five, very fmall 5 antheras ovate, four-cornered, eredt, 
patulous, large. II. Female. Calyx: ament none; 
perianthium trifid, very fmall. Corolla none. Piftillum : 
erm ovate, larger than the calyx 5 ftyles three, reflex ; 
igmas thickifli, hifpid. Pericarpium : drupe dry, ovate. 
Seed : nut ovate, fmooth. Terebinthus (Tournef.) has 
pinnate leaves with an odd leaflet. Lentifcus (Tournef.) 
has pinnate leaves without any odd leaflet.— EJfential 
Character. Male an ament, calyx five-cleft, corolla none. 
Female diftindt; calyx trifid, corolla none, ftyles two, 
drupe one-feeded. There are three fpecies. 
1. Piftacia officinalis, the piftachia-tree : leave! Ample, 
ternate, and pinnate: leaflets oval. In the Levant, 
where the piftacia is a native, this tree grows to the 
height of twenty-five or thirty feet 5 the bark of the ftem 
and old branches is of a dark ruffet colour, but that of 
the young branches is of alight brown. The leaves emit 
an odour like that of the nut, when they are bruifed. 
Some of the trees produce male flowers, others female; 
and fome, when they are old, have both on the fame tree. 
The male flowers come out from the fide of the branches 
in loofe bunches, and are of an herbaceous colour. The 
female flowers come out in the fame manner in clufters. 
Mr. Swinburne obferves, that the male tree of the 
piftachia (trifolia, Linn.) has fmall oblong blunt leaves, of 
a dufky green; the flowers thick and in bunches; the 
female bloflbms are more fcattered, the leaves larger, 
harder, rounder, and of a lighter colour. The male puts 
forth its flowers firft, and fome gardeners pluck them 
whilft yet flint, dry them, and afterwards fprinkle the 
pollen over the female tree : but the method ufually 
followed in Sicily, when the trees are far afunder, is to 
wait till the female buds are open, and then to gather 
bunches of male bloflbms ready to blow; thefe are ftuck 
into a pot of moift mould, and hung upon the female 
tree till they are quite dry and empty. This operation 
is called tuchiarare, and never fails to produce fructifica¬ 
tion ; fometimes the gardeners ingraft the male bud upon 
the female tree. The male tree is called in the Sicilian 
language fcornabecco , and the fruit fajlugo. Our old wri¬ 
ters call it fijliche-nut. 
Though one variety of the piftachia tree has the appella¬ 
tive of harlonenjis , and P. trifolia is faid to be a native 
of Sicily, yet there is no doubt of its having originally 
been brought into Europe, with moft of our valuable 
fruits, from the eaftern countries. Pliny relates, that the 
emperor Vitellius introduced it into Italy from Syria, 
when he was legate in that province. 
Gouan thus diftinguilhes the three fpecies, or rather 
varieties, of the piftachia-tree. 
ec. P. officinalis, or trifolia, has two or three flowering 
buds from the ends of the branches, below the branching 
bud. Thefe have no leaves. The branching bud puts 
forth pubefcent, almoft-filky, leaves; the firft ternate, 
the next quinate and Ample, or in an inverted order, the 
Vol. XX. No. 1388. 
525 
primary ones quite Ample : all the leaflets are orbiculate, 
fleftiy, very fmooth, rugged and netted with veins, acu¬ 
minate, but not unfrequently blunt and emarginate, two 
inches wide and a little more in length; the odd leaflet 
largeft,at the bafe acuminate, and as it were running down 
into the petiole; which is flat, thick, and almoft winged : 
the lateral leaflets fertile, alternate and oppofite. Racemes 
in both fexes fimilar. According to Linnteus, it is a na¬ 
tive of Sicily. 
/ 3 . P. narbonenfls agrees with the preceding in the 
manner of flowering, and the Atuation of the buds: but 
the racemes are larger. Leaves pinnate, ternate, fub-orbi- 
culate ; leaflets ovate-oblong, acuminate, narrower, on 
rtiort petioles but not fertile, with a longitudinal nerve 
fometimes making one Ade of the leaf narrower. Folia¬ 
tion as in P. terebinthus; fruit twice as large, fubovate, 
reddifh, the fkin netted and wrinkled, on one Ade gibbous 
dowmwards, or fometimes from the middle only. Accor¬ 
ding to Linnaeus, it grows about Montpelier, as well as 
in Perfia, Mefopotamia, and Armenia, where it was 
found by Rauwolf. Mr. Miller fays it grows in Italy and 
the fouth of France, but is fuppofed to have been tranf- 
planted from fome other country. 
y. P. vera has the appearance of the preceding. The 
flowering and branching buds are in the fame refpefitive 
Atuation. Racemes lefs compound, and almoft as in P. 
trifolia, one to four, alternate. The fcalelets feparating 
the florets are concave, larger and deciduous. Leaflets 
five at moft, very (harp pointed, not unfrequently ob¬ 
liquely ovate-lanceolate, or wider downwards on one fide. 
According to Linnaeus, this is a native of Perfia, Arabia, 
Syria, and India. It is frequent about Aleppo; and 
Rauwolf fays that there are whole woods of it near Ser- 
min and Bafilo. Mr. Miller affirms that it grows natu¬ 
rally in Barbary, Spain, Italy, and the Levant. But he 
confounds the piftachia and turpentine tree. His P. 
terebinthus is the former, and his P. vera is the latter. 
Desfontaines fays it is cultivated in the kingdom of Tu¬ 
nis; and that Linnaeus’s P. trifolia feems to be nothing 
more than a variety of it. From this confufion in the 
fynonymes, we have been induced to confider the whole 
genus as confifting of three fpecies only. The piftachia- 
tree was cultivated in England in 1570, by Mr. Gray, as 
appears from Lobel; it flowers here in April and May. 
2. Piftacia terebinthus, the turpentine tree: leaves un¬ 
equally pinnate; leaflets ovate-lanceolate. Thefituation 
of the buds is fimilar to that in the preceding fpecies. 
Leaflets feven, the middle ones for the moft part larger, 
or the odd leaflet and the two inmoft fmaller than the 
four others; each ovate-oblong, by no means acuminate, 
but yet ftyled ; moft of them alfo are wider on one fide. 
Fruit like that of P. narbonenfis, but only half or a third 
of thefize, not at all wrinkled, and towards the top gib¬ 
bous on one fide, (but not downwards, as in P. narbonen¬ 
fis,) with the ftyle, and having fometimes a concave circle 
near the bafe. 
Monf. Villars defcribes it as a low fhrub, but very thick. 
The wood is odorous and balfamic. The leaves have 
two pairs of leaflets, terminated by an odd one which is 
larger; they are firm, and fhining on the upper furface. 
The flowers form branching catkins at the axils of the 
leaves, and are reddifh. Native of Barbary and the 
South of Europe. Cultivated in England in 1730. It 
flowers here in June and July. 
Cyprus, or Chian turpentine, which this tree furnifhes, 
is procured by wounding the bark of the trunk in feveral 
places, during the month of July, leaving a fpace of about 
three inches between the wounds; from thefe the tur¬ 
pentine is received on ftones, upon which it becomes fo 
much condenfed by the coldnefs of the night, as to admit 
of being fcraped off with a knife, which is always done 
before fun-rife ; in order to free it from all extraneous 
admixture, it is again liquefied by the fun’s heat, and 
pafled through a ftrainer; it is then fit for ufe. The 
quantity produced is very inconfiderable; four large 
6 S trees, 
