102. Pinus, DC.—The Pine.

Sub-order I. Abieteae.

Ovules inverted; pollen oval, curved.


102. Pinus, DC.—The Pine.

Sex. Syst. Monoecia, Monadelphia. (Oleo-resinae.)

Botany. Gen. Char.—Flowers monoecious. Males:—catkins racemose, compact and terminal; squamose; the scales staminiferous at the apex. Stamens 2; the anthers 1-celled. Females: catkins or cones simple, imbricated with acuminate scales. Ovaries 2. Stigmas glandular. Scales of the cone oblong, club-shaped, woody; umbilicato-angular at the apex. Seeds [nuts, DC.] in pairs, covered with a sharp-pointed membrane. Cotyledons digitato-partite. Leaves 2 or many, in the same sheath (DC. and Dubuy, Bot. Gall.).—Hardy, evergreen trees.

Species.—1. Pinus sylvestris, Linn.; Wild Pine or Scotch Fir.—Leaves in pairs, rigid. Cones ovato-conical, acute; young ones stalked, recurved, as long as the leaves; generally in pairs. Crest of the anthers very small. Embryo 5-lobed (Bot. Gall.).—Highlands of Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and other northern countries of Europe. Flowers in May and June. A tall, straight, hardy, long-lived tree, determinately-branched. Its wood is the red or yellow deal. It yields common turpentine, tar, and pitch.

2. Pinus Pinaster, Aiton, Lambert; P. maritima, DC.; the Pinaster or Cluster Pine.—Leaves twin, very long, rigid, pungent, furnished at the base with a reflexed scale. Cones oblong-conical, obtuse, very smooth, bright, shorter than the leaves. Scales bristly (Bot. Gall.).—Southern maritime parts of Europe. Very abundant in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, and between this city and Bayonne. It is a much larger tree than the Scotch Fir. Flowers in May. It yields Bordeaux turpentine, galipot, tar, and pitch.

3. Pinus palustris, Lambert; the Swamp Pine. Leaves 3, very long. Cones subcylindrical, armed with sharp prickles. Stipules pinnatifid, ragged, persistent (Lambert).—A very large tree, growing in dry sandy soils, from the southern parts of Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico. "Its mean elevation is 60 or 70 feet, and the diameter of its trunk about 15 or 18 inches for two-thirds of this height. The leaves are about a foot in length, of a brilliant green colour, and united in bunches at the ends of the branches. The names by which the tree is known in the Southern States are long-leaved pine, yellow pine, and pitch pine; but the first is the most appropriate, as the last two are applied also to other species. This tree furnishes by far the greater proportion of turpentine, tar, &c, consumed in the United States, or sent from this to other countries." [United States Dispensatory.]

4. Pinus Taeda, Lambert; the Frankincense Pine.—Abundant in Virginia. Yields common turpentine, but of a less fluid quality than that which flows from the preceding species.

5. Pinus Pinea, Lambert, DC.; the Stone Pine.—Grows in the south of Europe and northern part of Africa. Yields the cones called, in the shops, pignoli pines, the seeds of which, termed pine nuts (πιτνίδες, Diosc.; pityida, Pliny; nuclei pineae pineoli) are used as a dessert.

6. Pinus Pumilio, Lambert; the Mugho or Mountain Pine.—A native of the mountains of the south of Europe. An oleo-resin, called Hungarian balsam (Balsamum Hungaricum), exudes spontaneously from the extremities of the branches, and from other parts of the tree. By distillation of the young branches with water, there is obtained in Hungary an essential oil, called Krummholzöl, or oleum templinum.

7. Pinus Cembra, Lambert, DC.; the Siberian Stone Pine.—The seeds, like those of Pinus Pinea, are eaten. By distillation the young shoots yield Carpathian balsam (balsamum carpathicum; b. Libani).


The Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Vol. II, 3th American ed., was written by Jonathan Pereira in 1854.