Pitch Tree.
Picea.
Also see: Fir Tree - Red Fir Tree, or Pitch Tree - Larch Tree - Pitch Tree - The Wild Pine Tree - The Turpentine Tree.
A tree of the fir kind, and commonly called the red fir. It is a tall tree of regular growth; the bark of the trunk is of a reddish brown, and it is paler on the branches; the leaves are very numerous, short, narrow, and of a strong green; they stand very thick, and are sharp, or almost prickly at the extremities. The flowers are yellowish and inconsiderable; and the fruit is a long and large cone, which hangs down; whereas that of the true fir tree, or the yew-leaved fir, stands upright.
The tops of the branches and young shoots are used: they abound with a resin of the turpentine kind. They are best given in decoction, or brewed with beer. They are good against the rheumatism and scurvy; they work by urine, and heal ulcers of the urinary parts.
Pitch and tar are produced from the wood of this tree, the tar sweats out of the wood in burning, and the pitch is only tar boiled to that consistence. To obtain the tar, they pile up great heaps of the wood, and set fire to them at top, and the tar sweats out of the ends of the lower, and is catched as it runs from them.
Burgundy pitch is made of the resin of the wild pine tree, which is common turpentine boiled in water to a certain consistence, if they boil it longer, it would be resin, for the common resin is only this turpentine boiled to a hardness.
