was confirmed by a gentleman who was there in the year 1720, with this difference only, viz. in the dimensions of the branches of the largest tree, which he measured, and found to be 22 yards diameter. Now, whether Mr Maundrel meant 37 yards in circumference of the spreading branches, or the diameter of them, cannot be determined by his words; yet either of them well agrees with this last account.

"The statue (says Hanbury) of the great goddess at Ephesus was made of this material; and, if this tree abounded with us in great plenty, it might have a principal share in our most superb edifices. The effluvia constantly emitted from its wood are said to purify the air, and make rooms wholesome. Chapels and places set apart for religious duties, being wainscotted with this wood, inspire the worshippers with a more solemn awe. It is not obnoxious to worms; and emits an oil which will preserve cloth or books from worms or corruption. The saw-dust will preserve human bodies from putrefaction; and is therefore said to be plentifully used in the rites of embalming, where practised."

It is remarkable that this tree is not to be found as a native in any other part of the world than Mount Libanus, as far as bath yet been discovered. What we find mentioned in Scripture of the lofty cedars can be nowise applicable to the common growth of this tree; since, from the experience we have of those now growing in England, as also from the testimony of several travellers who have visited those few remaining trees on Mount Libanus, they are not inclined to grow very lofty, but on the contrary extend their branches very far; to which the allusion made by the Psalmist agrees very well, when he is describing the flourishing state of a people, and says, "They shall spread their branches like the celar-tree."

Rauwolf, in his Travels, says, there were not at that time (i. e. anno 1574) upon Mount Libanus more than 26 trees remaining, 24 of which stood in a circle; and the other two, which stood at a small distance, had their branches almost consumed with age; nor could he find any younger tree coming up to succeed them, though he looked about diligently for some. These trees (he says) were growing at the foot of a small hill on the top of the mountains, and amongst the snow. These having very large branches, commonly bend the tree to one side, but are extended to a great length, and in so delicate and pleasant order, as if they were trimmed and made even with great diligence, by which they are easily distinguished, at a great distance, from fir-trees. The leaves (continues he) are very like to those of the larch tree, growing close together in little branches upon small brown shoots.

Maundrel, in his Travels, says, there were but 16 large trees remaining when he visited the mountain, some of which were of a prodigious bulk, but that there were many more young ones of a smaller size: he measured one of the largest, and found it to be 12 yards six inches in girth, and yet sound, and 37 yards in the spread of its boughs. At about five or six yards from the ground it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal to a great tree. What Maundrel bath related

12. There is another species, viz. the larch trec, which the old botanists ranked under larix, with deciduous leaves, and oval obtuse cones. It grows naturally upon the Alps and Apennines, and of late has been very. much propagated in Britain. It is of quick growth, and the trunk rises to 50 feet or more; the branches are slender, their ends are generally hanging downward, and are garnished with long narrow leaves which arise in clusters from one point, spreading open above like the hair of a painter's brush: they are of a light green, and fall away in autumn. In the month of April the male flowers appear, which are disposed in form of small cones; the female flowers are collected into oval obtuse cones, which in some species have bright purple tops, and in others they are white: these differences are accidental; the cones are about an inch long, obtuse at. their points; the scales are smooth, and lie over each other under each scale there are generally lodged. two. seeds which have wings. There are other two varieties of this tree, one of which is a native of America, and the other of Siberia. The cones of the American kind which have been brought to Britain seem in general to be larger than those of the common sort.

"Many encomiums (says Hanbury when speaking. of this species) have been bestowed on the timber of the larch and we find such a favourable account of it in ancient authors, as should induce us to think it would be proper for almost any use. Evelyn recites a story of Witsen, a Dutch writer, that a ship built of this timber and cypress had been found in the Numidian sea, twelve fathoms under water, sound and entire, and reduced to such a hardness as to resist the sharpest tool, after it had lain submerged above 1400 years. Certain it is this is an excellent wood for ship and house-building. At Venice this wood is frequently used in building their houses, as well as in Switzerland, where these trees abound: so that, without all doubt, the larch excels for masts for ships, or beams for houses, doors, windows, &c. particularly as it is said to resist the worm.

"In Switzerland (A) their houses are covered with boards of this wood cut out a foot square; and, as it emits a resinous substance, it so diffuses itself into every joint and crevice, and becomes so compact and close, as well as so hardened by the air, as to render the covering proof against all weather. But as such covering for. houses would cause great devastation in case of fire, the buildings

Pinus. buildings are confined to a limited distance by an order of police from the magistrates. The wood, when first laid on the houses, is said to be very white; but this colour, in two or three years is changed, by means of the sun and resin, to a black, which appears like a smooth shining varnish."

Of the common larch there are several varieties. The flowers which the commonest sort exhibits early in the spring are of a delicate red colour; another sort produces white flowers at the same season, and these have a delightful effect among those of the red sort; whilst another, called the Black Newfoundland larix, increases the variety, though by an aspect little differing from the others. There are also larches with greenish flowers, pale red, &c. all of which are accidental varieties from seeds. These varieties are easily distinguished, even when out of blow: the young shoots of the white-flowering larch are of the lightest green, and the cones when ripe are nearly white. The red flowering larch has its shoots of a reddish cast, and the cones are of a brown colour; whilst the cones and shoots of the black New foundland larch are in the same manner proportionally tinged. The cones, which are a very great ornament to several sorts of the pines, are very little to these. Their chief beauty consists in the manner of their growth, the nature and beauty of their pencilled leaves and fair flowers; for the cones that succeed them are small, of a whitish, a reddish, or a blackish-brown colour, and make no figure.

The pinus cedrus and pinus larix are propagated by sowing in March on a bed of light earth exposed to the morning sun. The seed must be covered half an inch thick with fine light earth, and the beds watered at times when the weather is dry. In about six weeks the plants will appear; they must at this time be carefully guarded from the birds, shaded from the sun and winds, and kept very clear of weeds. In the latter end of April the following year, they may be removed into beds of fresh earth, placing them at ten inches distance every way. They are to be kept here two years, and such of them as seem to bend must be tied up to a stake to keep them upright. They may afterwards be planted in the places where they are to remain. They thrive well on the sides of barren hills, and make a very pretty figure there.

Respecting the uses of this tree, Dr Pallas, in his Flora Rossica, informs us, that if it is burnt, and the wood consumed, the internal part of the wood distils copiously a drying reddish gum, a little less glutinous than gum arabic, somewhat of a resinous taste, but wholly soluble in water. At the instigation of M. Kinder, this gum has lately been sold in the Russian shops under the name of gummi Orenburgensis, but which our author thinks should be called gummi Uraliense or laricis. It is eaten by the Woguli as a dainty, and is said to be nutritious and antiscorbutic. Some manna was gathered from the green leaves, but it could never be condensed. The Russians use the boletus laricinus as an emetic in intermittents, and to check the leucorrhoea. At Baschir and Siberia the inhabitants sprinkle the dry powder on the wounds of oxen and horses, as a detergent and anthelmintic. The nuts of the pinus cembra, the same author asserts, are eaten as luxuries in Russia, and are even exported with the same view. The unripe cones give a very fragrant oil, termed balsamic. The inhabitants of

Siberia use the tender tops, and even the bark rubbed off in the spring, as an antiscorbutic. The kernels of the nuts of the amygdalus nana give a very pleasing flavour to brandy; and, when pressed, afford a bitter oil in large quantities. The way of destroying the bitter is by digesting it in the sun with spirit of wine, and it then becomes sweet and extremely agreeable.

From the larch-tree is extracted what is erroneously called Venice turpentine. This substance, or natural balsam, flows at first without incision; when it has done dropping, the poor people who wait in the fir woods make incisions at about two or three feet from the ground into the trunks of the trees, into which they fix narrow troughs about 20 inches long. The end of these troughs is hollowed like a ladle; and in the middle is a small hole bored for the turpentine to run into the receiver which is placed below it. As the gummy substance runs from the trees, it passes along the sloping gutter or trough to the ladle, and from thence runs through the holes into the receiver. The people who gather it visit the trees morning and evening from the end of May to September, to collect the turpentine out of the receivers. When it flows out of the tree, Venice turpentine is clear like water, and of a yellowish white; but as it grows older, it thickens and becomes of a citron colour. It is procured in the greatest abundance in the neighbourhood of Lyons, and in the valley of St Martin near Lucern in Switzerland.

Though we have already noticed the manner of cultivating some of the particular species of this genus, and have also remarked the uses of some of them, we shall finish the article with a few general observations on the culture and uses of the whole.

Culture. All the sorts of pines are propagated by seeds produced in hard woody cones. The way to get the seeds out of these cones is to lay them before a gentle fire, which will cause the cells to open, and then the seed may be easily taken out. If the cones are kept entire, the seeds will remain good for some years; so that the surest way of preserving them is to let them remain in the cones till the time for sowing the seeds. If the cones are kept in a warm place in summer, they will open and emit the seeds; but if they are not exposed to the heat, they will remain close for a long time. The best season for sowing the pines is about the end of March. When the seeds are sown, the place should be covered with nets to keep off the birds; otherwise, when the plants begin to appear with the husk of the seed on the top of them, the birds will peck off the tops, and thus destroy them.

Uses. From the first species is extracted the common turpentine, much used by farriers, and from which is drawn the oil of that name. The process of making pitch, tar, resin, and turpentine, from these trees is very familiar. In the spring time, when the sap is most free in running, they pare off the bark of the pine tree, to make the sap run down into a hole which they cut at the bottom to receive it. In the way, as it runs down, it leaves a white matter like cream, but a little thicker, This is very different from all the kinds of resin and turpentine in use, and it is generally sold to be used in the making of flambeaux instead of white bees wax. The matter that is received in the hole at the bottom is taken up with ladles, and put in a large basket. A great part of this immediately runs through, and this is the com

mon turpentine. This is received into stone or earthen pots, and is ready for sale. The thicker matter, which remains in the basket, they put into a common alembic, adding a large quantity of water. They distil this as long as any oil is seen swimming upon the water. This ail they separate from the surface in large quantities, and this is the common oil or spirit of turpentine. The remaining matter at the bottom of the still is common yellow resin. When they have thus obtained all that they can from the sap of the tree, they cut it down, and hewing the wood into billets, they fill a pit dug in the earth with these billets, and setting them on fire, there runs from them, while they are burning, a black thick matter. This naturally falls to the bottom of the pit, and this is the tar. The top of the pit is covered with tiles, to keep in the heat; and there is at the bottom a little hole, out at which the tar runs like oil. If this hole be made too large, it sets the whole quantity of the tar on fire; but, if small enough, it runs quietly out.

The tar, being thus made, is put up in barrels; and if it be to be made into pitch, they put it into large boiling vessels, without adding any thing to it. It is then suffered to boil a while, and being then let out, is found when cold to be what we call pitch.

A decoction of the nuts or seeds of the first species in milk, or of the extremities of the branches pulled in spring, is said, with a proper regimen, to cure the most inveterate scurvy. The wood of this species is not valued; but that of the Scots pine is superior to any of the rest. It is observable of the Scots pine, that when planted in bogs, or in a moist soil, though the plants make great progress, yet the wood is white, soft, and little esteemed; but when planted in a dry soil, though the growth of the trees is there very slow, yet the wood is proportionably better. Few trees have been applied to more uses than this. The tallest and straightest are formed by nature for masts to our navy. The timber is resinous, durable, and applicable to numberless domestic purposes, such as flooring and wainscotting of rooms, making of beds, chests, tables, boxes, &c. From the trunk and branches of this, as well as most others of the pine tribe, tar and pitch are obtained. By incision, barras, Burgundy pitch, and turpentine, are acquired and prepared. The resinous roots are dug out of the ground in many parts of the Highlands, and, being divided into amall splinters, are used by the inhabitants to burn, instead of candles.-At Loch-Broom, in Ross-shire, the fishermen make ropes of the inner bark; but hard necessity has taught the inhabitants of Sweden, Lapland, and Kamtschatka, to convert the same into bread. To effect this, they, in the spring season, make choice of the tallest and fairest trees; then stripping off carefully the outer bark, they collect the soft, white, succulent interior bark, and dry it in the shade. When they have occasion to use it, they first toast it at the fire, then grind, and after steeping the flour in warm water to take off the resinous taste, they make it into thin cakes, which are baked for use. On this strange food the poor inha bitants are sometimes constrained to live for a whole year; and, we are told, through custom, become at last even fond of it. Linnæus remarks, that this same barkbread will fatten swine; and humanity obliges us to wish, that men might never be reduced to the necessity of robbing them of such a food. The interior bark, of which the above-mentioned bread is made, the Swedish boys

frequently peel off the trees in the spring, and eat raw with greedy appetite. From the cones of this tree is prepared a diuretic oil, like the oil of turpentine, and a resinous extract, which has similar virtues with the balsam of Peru. An infusion or tea of the buds is highly commended as an antiscorbutic. The farina, or yellow powder, of the male-flowers, is sometimes in the spring carried away by the winds, in such quantities, where the trees abound, as to alarm the ignorant with the notion of its raining brimstone. The tree lives to a great age; Linnæus affirms to 400 years.

PIONEERS, in the art of war, are such as are commanded in from the country, to march with an army, for mending the ways, for working on intrenchments and fortifications, and for making mines and approaches. The soldiers are likewise employed for all these purposes. Most of the foreign regiments of artillery have half a company of pioneers, well instructed in that important branch of duty. Our regiments of infantry and cavalry have three or four pioneers each, provided with aprons, hatchets, saws, spades, and pickEach pioneer must have an axe, a saw, and an apron; a cap with a leather crown, and a black bearsskin front, on which is to be the king's crest in white, on a red ground; and the number of the regiment is to be on the back part of it.

axes.

PIP, or PEP, a disease among poultry, consisting of a white thin skin, or film, that grows under the tip of the tongue, and hinders their feeding. It usually arises from want of water, or from the drinking puddle-water, or eating filthy meat. It is cured by pulling off the film with the fingers, and rubbing the tongue with salt. Hawks are particularly liable to this disease, especially from feeding on stinking flesh.

PIPE, in building, &c. a canal, or conduit, for the conveyance of water and other liquids. Pipes for water, water-engines, &c. are usually of lead, iron, earth, or wood: the latter are usually made of oak or elder. Those of iron are cast in forges; their usual length is about two feet and a half: several of these are commonly fastened together by means of four screws at each end, with leather or old hat between them, to stop the water. Those of earth are made by the potters; these are fitted into one another, one end being always made wider than the other. To join them the closer, and prevent their breaking, they are covered with tow and pitch: their length is usually about that of the iron pipes. The wooden pipes are trees bored with large iron augres, of different sizes, beginning with a less, and then proceeding with a larger successively; the first being pointed, the rest being formed like spoons, increasing in diameter, from one to six inches and more: they are fitted into the extremities of each other (as represented fig. 2.), and are sold by the foot.

Pinus

Pipe.

Plate CCCCXIX.

Wooden pipes are bored as follows. The machine fig. 2. represented fig. 1. is put in motion by the wheel A, Fig. 1. which is moved by a current of water; upon the axle of this wheel is a cog-wheel B, which causes the lanterns C, D, to turn horizontally, whose common axis is consequently in a perpendicular direction. The lantern D turns at the same time two cog-wheels, E and F: the first, E, which is vertical, turns the augre which bores the wood; and the second F, which is horizontal, causes the carriage bearing the piece to advance by means of the arms H, I, which take hold of the not

chess

ches in the wheel K. The first, H, by means of the notches, draws the wheel towards F; and the other, I, pushes the under-post of the wheel in an opposite direction; both which motions tend to draw the carriage towards F, and consequently cause the augre to pierce the wood. The augre being from 9 to 12 feet in length, and of a proportionable bigness, it will be necessary to have two pieces, as L, L, to support its weight, and cause it to enter the piece to be bored with the same uniformity.

For the construction of leaden pipes, see the article PLUMBERY.

Air-PIPES. See AIR-Pipes.

PIPES of an Organ. See ORGAN.
Bag-PIPE. See BAG-Pipe.

Horn-PIPE. See HORNPIPE.

Tobacco-PIPE, a machine used in the smoking of tobacco, consisting of a long tube, made of earth or clay, having at one end a little case, or furnace, called the bowl, for the reception of the tobacco, the fumes whereof are drawn by the mouth through the other end. Tobacco pipes are made of various fashions; long, short, plain, worked, white, varnished, unvarnished, and of various colours, &c. The Turks use pipes three or four feet long, made of rushes, or of wood bored, at the end whereof they fix a kind of a pot of baked earth, which serves as a bowl, and which they take off after smoking.

PIPE, also denotes a vessel or measure for wine, and things measured by wine-measure. See BARREL and MEASURE.

PIPE, in Mining, is where the ore runs forwards endwise in a hole, and doth not sink downwards or in a vein. PIPE, Pipa, in Law, is a roll in the exchequer, called also the great roll. See the next article.

PIPE-Office, is an office wherein a person called the clerk of the pipe, makes out leases of crown-lands, by warrant from the lord-treasurer, or commissioners of the treasury, or chancellor of the exchequer. The clerk of the pipe makes out also all accounts of sheriffs, &c. and gives the accountants their quietus est. To this office are brought all accounts which pass the remembrancer's office, and remain there, that if any stated debt be due from any person, the same may be drawn down into the great roll of the pipe: upon which the comptroller issues out a writ, called the summons of the pipe, for recovery thereof; and if there be no goods or chattels, the clerk then draws down the debts to the lord treasurer's remembrancer, to write estreats against their lands. All tallies which vouch the payment of any sum contained in such accounts are examined and allowed by the chief secondary of the pipe. Besides the chief clerk in this office, there are eight attorneys or sworn clerks, and a comptroller.

PIPE Fish. See SYNGNATHUS, ICHTHYOLOGY Index. Sea PIPES, the trivial name of univalve shells belonging to the genus dentalis. See CONCHOLOGY Index. PIPER, a species of fish. See TRIGLA, ICHTHYOLOGY Index.

PIPER, Pepper; a genus of plants belonging to the diandria class. See BOTANY Index. There are 20 species, of which the most remarkable is the siriboa, with oval, heart-shaped, nerved leaves, and reflexed spikes. This is the plant which produces the pepper so much used in food. It is a shrub whose root is small, fibrous, and flexible; it rises into a stem, which requires a tree or prop to support it. Its wood has the same sort of knots as the vine; and when it is dry, it exactly resembles the vine-branch. The leaves, which have a strong smell and a pungent taste, are of an oval shape; but they diminish towards the extremity, and terminate in a point. From the flower-buds, which are white, and are sometimes placed in the middle and sometimes at the extremity of the branches, are produced small berries resembling those of the currant tree. Each of these contains between 20 and 30 corns of pepper; they are commonly gathered in October, and exposed to the sun seven or eight days. The fruit which was green at first, and afterwards red, when stripped of its covering assumes the appearance it has when we see it. The largest, heaviest, and least shrivelled, is the best.

The pepper plant flourishes in the islands of Java, Sumatra (A), and Ceylon, and more particularly on the Malabar coast. It is not sown, but planted; and great nicety is required in the choice of the shoots. It produces no fruit till the end of three years; but bears so plentifully the three succeeding years, that some plants yield between six and seven pounds of pepper. The bark then begins to shrink; and the shrub declines so fast, that in 12 years time it ceases bearing.

The culture of pepper is not difficult: it is sufficient to plant it in a rich soil, and carefully to pull up the weeds that grow in great abundance round its roots, especially the three first years. As the sun is highly necessary to the growth of the pepper plant, when it is ready to bear, the trees that support it must be lopped to prevent their shade from injuring the fruit. When the season is over, it is proper to crop the head of the plant. Without this precaution, there would be too much wood, and little fruit.

The pepper exported from Malabar, which was formerly entirely in the hands of the Portuguese, and was afterwards divided between the Dutch, British, and French, amounted to about 10,000,000 weight. Betel, or betle, is a species of this genus. See BETEL. It is a creeping and climbing plant like the ivy; and its leaves a good deal resemble those of the citron, though they are longer and narrower at the extremity. It grows in all parts of India, but thrives best in moist places. The natives cultivate it as we do the vine, placing props for it to run and climb upon; and it is a common practice to plant it against the tree which bears the areca-nut.

At all times of the day, and even in the night, the Indians chew the leaves of the betel, the bitterness of which is corrected by the areca that is wrapped up in them. There is constantly mixed with it the chinam,