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MASTIC TREES

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Introduction

Pistacia lentiscus.

This shrub or small tree of the family pistacia can reach six or seven meters high in older specimens.

The larger units produce, when they are bleeding, a latex called mastic. The mastic is used in dentistry for the preparation of dental cements, and was once widely used as a chewing-gum to strengthen the mouth gums and perfume breaths.

For ease to stay green long after carving, and as a curiosity, we would like to say that fishermen from Roses use mastic, tied with a string in bundles and deposited in the seabed, to facilitate the laying of squid eggs and fish them.

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