What is "pinus sylvestris"

Pine \Pine\, n. [AS. p[=i]n, L. pinus.]

1. (Bot.) Any tree of the coniferous genus Pinus. See Pinus.

   Note: There are about twenty-eight species in the United States, of which the white pine ( Pinus Strobus), the Georgia pine ( Pinus australis), the red pine ( Pinus resinosa), and the great West Coast sugar pine ( Pinus Lambertiana) are among the most valuable. The Scotch pine or fir, also called Norway or Riga pine ( Pinus sylvestris), is the only British species. The nut pine is any pine tree, or species of pine, which bears large edible seeds. See Pinon. [1913 Webster] The spruces, firs, larches, and true cedars, though formerly considered pines, are now commonly assigned to other genera.

2. The wood of the pine tree.

3. A pineapple. Ground pine. (Bot.) See under Ground. Norfolk Island pine (Bot.), a beautiful coniferous tree, the Araucaria excelsa. Pine barren, a tract of infertile land which is covered with pines. [Southern U.S.] Pine borer (Zo["o]l.), any beetle whose larv[ae] bore into pine trees. Pine finch. (Zo["o]l.) See Pinefinch, in the Vocabulary. Pine grosbeak (Zo["o]l.), a large grosbeak ( Pinicola enucleator), which inhabits the northern parts of both hemispheres. The adult male is more or less tinged with red. Pine lizard (Zo["o]l.), a small, very active, mottled gray lizard ( Sceloporus undulatus), native of the Middle States; -- called also swift, brown scorpion, and alligator. Pine marten. (Zo["o]l.)

   1. A European weasel ( Mustela martes), called also sweet marten, and yellow-breasted marten.

   2. The American sable. See Sable.

      Pine moth (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of small tortricid moths of the genus Retinia, whose larv[ae] burrow in the ends of the branchlets of pine trees, often doing great damage.

      Pine mouse (Zo["o]l.), an American wild mouse ( Arvicola pinetorum), native of the Middle States. It lives in pine forests.

      Pine needle (Bot.), one of the slender needle-shaped leaves of a pine tree. See Pinus.

      Pine-needle wool. See Pine wool (below).

      Pine oil, an oil resembling turpentine, obtained from fir and pine trees, and used in making varnishes and colors.

      Pine snake (Zo["o]l.), a large harmless North American snake ( Pituophis melanoleucus). It is whitish, covered with brown blotches having black margins. Called also bull snake. The Western pine snake ( Pituophis Sayi) is chestnut-brown, mottled with black and orange.

      Pine tree (Bot.), a tree of the genus Pinus; pine.

      Pine-tree money, money coined in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, and so called from its bearing a figure of a pine tree. The most noted variety is the pine tree shilling.

      Pine weevil (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of weevils whose larv[ae] bore in the wood of pine trees. Several species are known in both Europe and America, belonging to the genera Pissodes, Hylobius, etc.

      Pine wool, a fiber obtained from pine needles by steaming them. It is prepared on a large scale in some of the Southern United States, and has many uses in the economic arts; -- called also pine-needle wool, and pine-wood wool.

Riga fir \Ri"ga fir`\, [So called from Riga, a city in Russia.] (Bot.) A species of pine ( Pinus sylvestris), and its wood, which affords a valuable timber; -- called also Scotch pine, and red deal or yellow deal. It grows in all parts of Europe, in the Caucasus, and in Siberia.

Sylvic \Syl"vic\, a. (Chem.) Of, pertaining to, or resembling, pine or its products; specifically, designating an acid called also abeitic acid, which is the chief ingredient of common resin (obtained from Pinus sylvestris, and other species).

Vegetable \Veg`e*ta*ble\, a. [F. v['e]g['e]table growing, capable of growing, formerly also, as a noun, a vegetable, from L. vegetabilis enlivening, from vegetare to enliven, invigorate, quicken, vegetus enlivened, vigorous, active, vegere to quicken, arouse, to be lively, akin to vigere to be lively, to thrive, vigil watchful, awake, and probably to E. wake, v. See Vigil, Wake, v.]

1. Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable growths, juices, etc.

   Blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold.
   --Milton.

2. Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable kingdom. Vegetable alkali (Chem.), an alkaloid. Vegetable brimstone. (Bot.) See Vegetable sulphur, below. Vegetable butter (Bot.), a name of several kinds of concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian butter tree, the African shea tree, and the Pentadesma butyracea, a tree of the order Guttifer[ae], also African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of cocoa ( Theobroma). Vegetable flannel, a textile material, manufactured in Germany from pine-needle wool, a down or fiber obtained from the leaves of the Pinus sylvestris. Vegetable ivory. See Ivory nut, under Ivory. Vegetable jelly. See Pectin. Vegetable kingdom. (Nat. Hist.) See the last Phrase, below. Vegetable leather. (a) (Bot.) A shrubby West Indian spurge ( Euphorbia punicea), with leathery foliage and crimson bracts. (b) See Vegetable leather, under Leather. Vegetable marrow (Bot.), an egg-shaped gourd, commonly eight to ten inches long. It is noted for the very tender quality of its flesh, and is a favorite culinary vegetable in England. It has been said to be of Persian origin, but is now thought to have been derived from a form of the American pumpkin. Vegetable oyster (Bot.), the oyster plant. See under Oyster. Vegetable parchment, papyrine. Vegetable sheep (Bot.), a white woolly plant ( Raoulia eximia) of New Zealand, which grows in the form of large fleecy cushions on the mountains. Vegetable silk, a cottonlike, fibrous material obtained from the coating of the seeds of a Brazilian tree ( Chorisia speciosa). It us used for various purposes, as for stuffing, and the like, but is incapable of being spun on account of a want of cohesion among the fibers. Vegetable sponge. See 1st Loof. Vegetable sulphur, the fine highly inflammable spores of the club moss ( Lycopodium clavatum); witch. Vegetable tallow, a substance resembling tallow, obtained from various plants; as, Chinese vegetable tallow, obtained from the seeds of the tallow tree. Indian vegetable tallow is a name sometimes given to piney tallow. Vegetable wax, a waxy excretion on the leaves or fruits of certain plants, as the bayberry. Vegetable kingdom (Nat. Hist.), that primary division of living things which includes all plants. The classes of the vegetable kingdom have been grouped differently by various botanists. The following is one of the best of the many arrangements of the principal subdivisions. [1913 Webster] I. Ph[ae]nogamia (called also Phanerogamia). Plants having distinct flowers and true seeds. [

   1. Dicotyledons (called also Exogens). -- Seeds with two or more cotyledons. Stems with the pith, woody fiber, and bark concentrically arranged. Divided into two subclasses: Angiosperms, having the woody fiber interspersed with dotted or annular ducts, and the seed contained in a true ovary; Gymnosperms, having few or no ducts in the woody fiber, and the seeds naked.

   2. Monocotyledons (called also Endogens). -- Seeds with single cotyledon. Stems with slender bundles of woody fiber not concentrically arranged, and with no true bark.] [1913 Webster] II. Cryptogamia. Plants without true flowers, and reproduced by minute spores of various kinds, or by simple cell division. [

      1. Acrogens. -- Plants usually with distinct stems and leaves, existing in two alternate conditions, one of which is nonsexual and sporophoric, the other sexual and o["o]phoric. Divided into Vascular Acrogens, or Pteridophyta, having the sporophoric plant conspicuous and consisting partly of vascular tissue, as in Ferns, Lycopods, and Equiseta, and Cellular Acrogens, or Bryophyta, having the sexual plant most conspicuous, but destitute of vascular tissue, as in Mosses and Scale Mosses.

      2. Thallogens. -- Plants without distinct stem and leaves, consisting of a simple or branched mass of cellular tissue, or educed to a single cell. Reproduction effected variously. Divided into Alg[ae], which contain chlorophyll or its equivalent, and which live upon air and water, and Fungi, which contain no chlorophyll, and live on organic matter. (Lichens are now believed to be fungi parasitic on included alg[ae].]

         Note: Many botanists divide the Ph[ae]nogamia primarily into Gymnosperms and Angiosperms, and the latter into Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. Others consider Pteridophyta and Bryophyta to be separate classes. Thallogens are variously divided by different writers, and the places for diatoms, slime molds, and stoneworts are altogether uncertain. [1913 Webster] For definitions, see these names in the Vocabulary.