[= F. pin de pierre; cf. also G. steinpinie (in some Dicts.). The reason for the name is obscure; it has been supposed to refer to the hardness of the seeds.] A species of pine-tree, Pinus Pinea, a native of Southern Europe and the Levant, with edible seeds. Also applied to other species, as P. Cembra (Swiss Stone-pine).
1759. P. Miller, Gard. Dict. (ed. 7). s.v. Pinus, The cultivated Pine Tree, commonly called the Stone Pine.
1785. Martyn, Lett. Bot., xxviii. 444. The Stone-Pine has also double leaves.
1846. Lindley, Veg. Kingd., 229. [The seeds] of the Stone Pine of Europe, Pinus Pinea,… [and of] Pinus Cembra, Pinus Lambertiana … are all eatable when fresh.
1887. G. Nicholson, Dict. Gard., s.v. Pinus, P. Cembra. Swiss Stone Pine.
attrib. 1822. Hortus Angl., II. 498. P[inus] Pinea. Stone Pine Tree.
1874. Stewart & Brandis, Flora N. West India, 516. The celebrated Stone Pine forest … near Ravenna.
1875. Kingston, trans. Jules Verne’s Abandoned, vii. (1880), 90. He [the monkey] ate with relish some stone pine almonds and rhizome roots.
