g PINETUM B R I T A N N I C U M.
odds and Mr Douglafs courago noed moult no feather although he did make a precipitate retreat when no
man purfued But, feated quietly .at our own firef.dc, and reflecting on the circumftances with the hght
which we now polfefs, from our greater knowledge of the habits of the natives, we may venture to fay that,
had Dot,glas kept his ground and waited their return, he would have been agreeably fur,,r,fed by Cnd.ng
them bearing a large fupply of the feed, ready fhelled Their ready and unammous departure tndtcates a
defined objea, which they knew they could accomplidr. It was not to difperfe to fearch and chmb lor
eones which were growing on the trees around them ; l,ut, poffefCng plenty of the feeds in thetr lodges,
they rullted off, with the one-ideaed impetuofity of a fchoolboy, to procure the dcCrcd article. W hen Mr
William Murray, in one of his expeditions (1SS4). <»•"= " i " " " '
of procuring the feed ot P. Lamte,ti«m than cutting down thefe enormous trees, he found that he could
ol>tain them in quantity, re.ady flielled, from the natives for fome trifling reeompenfe ; and actually thus
procured and brought away with him feveral pecks of the feed in the finell order. But, even fuppoCng
that Douglas by waiting might have received a good fupply of the feeds, the queft.on remams, whether,
after the interchange of tobacco for feeds was over, fome new ruling idea might not have fczed the group,
to be followed with equally unreafoning vehemencc-fueh as the beauty of his gun .and p.llols, and thetr
peculiar fitnefs for themfelves. Douglas, therefore, undoubtedly exereifed a wife d.fcreOon ,n d.llruflmg
the impulfes of thefe " children of nature." In fubfequent letters, written fome years aftcnvnrds, he mentions
that in cach of the two years following the incident .above related, a party of whites had been maffacred
by the I ndians of that d i f t r i a ; in one of them only one lndividu.al efcaping to tell the tale.
The name " Liimbertiana" was given to it by Douglas in honour of Mr Aylmer Bourke Lambert,
of Boyton Houfe, near Ileytefliuty, Wilts, who was the la« furvivor of the original members of the Lmuaan
Society, and for nearly fifty years one of its Viee-Prefidcnts. He was born in 1761. From his
college days to his death, in 1S43, he was ardently attached to the fludy of natural feience, and amafl-ed
one of the large« botanical eollcaions then in exiftence. He is chiefly interefting to the ftudents of
Conifcne from having publillied the magnificent work intitled " A Defcription of the Genus Pinus,
cited above. It was firft pubhllicd in London, in i.Sos, in folio, and a fupplementary volume in 1S25 : and
is one of the moft fplendid botanical publications that ever ifl-ued from the prefs. A fécond edition, with
addifions, was puUiflied in iSaS, and a third volume w-as ad.led in 1S34. A fmaller edition, m impernal
ocTavo, was publifiied in 1832. This is compofed of the fame matter as the 1838 edition, and the plates
feem to be excifed portions of the larger plates, crowded together in a fmaller comiafs. It is right to add
that the chief part of the defcdptions in that work was executed by .Mr Don, who was for many years
curator of Mr Lamberts colledtion and library.
Introduced into p~urope in 1827.
propertks and The timber, as already mentioned, is loft, white, ftraight
homogeneous. In California it is efteemed beyond all other Pines for " infide work," fi
and house carpentry in general.
Where a tree has
.altered. It in a
, whence the name
,r fweetening their
athartic properties
veiy clofe; as Dr
drug without the
like." Dr Lyon
, analyfe a portion
ced at his difpolal
clot {CompL Ri-nd.
The juice or refin is white and semi-tr.anfparent, crumbly, and not very tenacious,
partially burnt, the refin whieh exudes from it feems thereby to have its properties
greater meafurc lofes its terebinthine tafte and fmdl, and acquires a fwectilh taftc like fuga,
Pine) which the tree has received from the fcttlers. It is fometimes ufcd by them f,
lit more frequently as a medicine than a condiment, on account of the decidcd (
in tafte, appeal
ibinthine flavoi
an, its phyfical
1 UnivcrCty of E.linburgh, h
properties with
the grain, and
:h as floors, doors,
be
g"
(Sugai
flXKl,
W'hich it pofleft'es. Its refemblance
Newberry fays, " but for a flight te
knowledge of the druggift or phyfi,
Playfair, Profeffor of Chemiftiy in t
of it, and found il aU but identical
nee, and properties to manna is
, it might be fubftiUited for tkat
,nd mc,Ileal properties are fo very
too fmall to .allow him to make a reliable ciuantitative analyfis.
ad the kindnefs t,
lough the porfion pla
Accomling to Berth
P I X U S LA.MBEKTIANA.
1855, No. 12, p. 452, t. .xii.l, who defcribes the body in queftion under the name of Pimtc, it poflliïes nght
polarifation, and is incapable of fermentation, even after treatment with fulphurie acid. Its analyfis led to
the formula, C,„ H,„ O.,. Acetate of lead-oxide ammonia precipitates from its folutions the compound,
C,„ H,„ O,., ,P'' O. It is ifomcric with Qucrcite. but differs from that body in cryftalline form, and has
a greater folubillty and fweetnefs. In another p.aper Berthelot defcribes a large number of fugars and
acids. Among thefe are the acid .and neutral ftearates and benzoates of PiniU'. He has further found
that when thefe compounds are faponified there is obtained the original acid, and not PiniU, but a
fuhftance which gmdually paffes into Pinite. The name Pinik is objeiftionahle, as identical in orthography
with one appellation of a mineral whieh is overloaded with fynonyms.
M. Bourfier de la Riviere fays that it is only the old trees which produce this faech.arine juice. He
adds that from the alburnum only refin flows, and that it is from the wood alone that the fugar is procured
Mr Gordon feems to have oddly mifapprehcnded what is related of the refin. I le fays the feeds " are
ufed for food by the Indians, as wefl as the refin, which is freely produced by the tree when wounded ;
rmfted as a Jub/litute for fugar: It he fpeaks ot the feeds in the words which are italicifed. they are ufcd
as food^not as a fubftitute for fugar ; if of the refin, whieh is or may he uted as a fubfiitute for fugar, it is
not the refin which is roaftcd to make it fo, but the tree whieh is roafted to make it produce the fugary
refin. Bourfier de la Rivière fays that he lived upon it in the n
eaten by the natives roafsd, or are pounded into coarfe cakes f(
taw them making thefe cake.s, and found them more elaborate
round halls, compofed of the feeds of the Sugar Pine, or of/',
Mr Murray
very go
Douglas fays that the feds are
leir winter ftore. Mr William Murray
compofition. Thofe he met with were
• Sa/imiana, mixed with grafflioppers or
not tafte thefe bafls or cakes. I le had
or to the acorns—he couki even have
Ï his difguft at the lilthincfs of the nipulation by the
loeiifts and large acorns (of Q m , d.nfflora f).
no objection to the feeds of the Pines, which
managed the locufts; but he could not overcoi
fquaws in preparing the " cakes."
As tn the goodnets of the feeds to eat there can be no doubt: we fpeak from jierfonal experience ;
and Douglas, in his paper in the ' Linnean TranfaCtions,' mcnfions that he h.id been informed by Mr
Mcnzics that, when he was on the cnft of California with Captain Vancouver in 1793, feeds of a large
Pine, refcriibling thofe of the Stone Pine, were ferved at the deffert by the Spaniih pncfts refident there.
•• Thefe," fays he, " were no doubt the produee of the fpecies now noticed ; ' or juft as probably of P.
Sabiniana. which has a feed tomewh.it like it, as well in
ppearance as taftc. Other animals as well as ourin
felves appreciate the feeds as an ardcle of food. Jetfrey
one of his communications to the Committee
of the Edinburgh Oregon Botanical Affociation, fays
• f am forry to have to relate an accident which
deprived me ot a fine flock of the feeds of P. Landerti
Ul. I w,TS encamped one night and had a fmall
tack of hs feeds along
exceiit about two dozei
vith During the night a ground r.at found them out, and a cd them alt
Cuk,-.'. qiuantity of feed fent home hy Douglas was fmall. Of the plants re.ared from
it two were figured by Loudon in his Arbonium (kic. cit.), one growing in the Arboretum ot the Royal
Horticultural "society at Chitwick, and the other at Red Leaf, Pcniliurft. Kent, the feat of William
Wells, Efq. The former is 38 feet 6 inehes in hei.ght, but ftill a budiy tree, retaining the charaaer Ihown
in the fignre ot it given by Loudon two-and-twenty years ago. Thi
charader is due to the foil at Chitwick, which is very unfavourable to
Leatilicd in 1845, being then about thirteen years old and 35 feet 6 ii
has a tree from a branch inarched upon a Weymouth Pine, pUnted
At C,aftle Martyr, near Cork, the fe.at of the Ead of Shannon, there
in circumference at the bafe. It was planted fnbfequently to 184;
teem peculiarly favourable to the growth of coniferous
n the courfe of this work.
[ 3 ]
The geological formation
fmall amount of growth and bufhy
:onifcrous trees. The tree at Red
:hes in height, Mr Wells, however,
! 1839, and now about 35 feet high,
a plant 35 feet in height and 3 feet
The climate and foil of that diftrict
will appear from the various references to it
ntr>' is clay-flate, old red fanditone, and limeftone:
• l . i f j t H i i i l l J J f i i S U U a i