The Description.

1. Picea, the tree that droppeth pitch, called Pitch Tree, groweth up to be a tall, fair, and big tree, remaining always green like the Pine tree: the timber of it is more red than that of the Pine or Fir: it is set full of boughs not only about the top, but much lower, and also beneath the middle part of the body, which many times hang down, bending toward the ground: the leaves be narrow, not like those of the Pine tree, but shorter and narrower, and sharp pointed like them, yet are they blacker, and withal cover the young and tender twigs in manner of a circle, like those of the Fir tree; but being many, and thick set, grow forth on all sides, and not only one right against another, as in the Yew tree: the fruit is scaly, and like unto the Pine apple, but smaller: the bark of the tree is somewhat black; tough and flexible, not brittle, as is the bark of the Fir tree: under which next to the wood is gathered a resin, which many times issueth forth, and is like to that of the Larch tree.

2. Of this sort (saith Clusius) there is found another that never grows high, but remaineth dwarfish, and it carries certain little nugaments or catkins of the bigness of a small nut, composed of scales lying one upon another, but ending in a prickly leaf, which in time opening show certain empty cavities or cells: from the tops of these sometimes grow forth branches set with many short and pricking little leaves: all the shrub hath shorter and paler coloured leaves than the former: I observed neither fruit nor flower on this, neither know I whether it carry any. Dalechampius seems to have known this and to have called it Pinus tubulus or tibulus.

The Place.

The Pitch Tree groweth in Greece, Italy, France, Germany, and all the cold regions even unto Russia.

The Time.

The fruit of the Pitch Tree is ripe in the end of September.

The Names.

 The Grecians call this cone tree Pitys: the Latins, Picea, and not Pinus; for Pinus, or the Pine tree, is the Grecians Peyke: as shall be declared: that is named in Latin Picea, Scribonius Largus testifieth, in his 201st Composition, writing after this manner; Resinæ Petuinæ, id est, ex Picea arbore, which signifies in English, of the resin of the tree Pitys, that is to say, of the Pitch Tree. With him doth Pliny agree, lib. 16. cap. 10. where he translating Theophrastus his words concerning Peuce and Pitys, doth translate Pitys, Picea, although for Peuce he hath written Larix, as shall be declared. Pliny writeth thus; Larix ustis radicibus non repullulat: and the Larch tree doth not spring up again when the roots are burnt: the Pitch Tree springeth up again, as it happened in Lesbos, when the wood Pyrthæus was set on fire. Moreover, the worms Pityocampæ are scarce found in any tree but only in the Pitch Tree, as Bellonius testifieth: so that they are not rashly called Pityocampæ, or the worms of the Pitch Tree, although most translators name them Pinorum erucæ, or the the worms of the Pine trees: and therefore Pitys is surnamed by Theophrastus, Phleriopoios, because worms and maggots are bred in it. But forsomuch as the name Pitys is common both to the tame Pine, and also to the Pitch Tree, divers of the late writers do for this cause suppose, that the Pitch Tree is named by Theophrastus, Pitys agria, or the wild Pine tree. This Picea is named in High Dutch, Schwartz Tannebaum, and Rot Tannebaum, and oftentimes also Jorenholtz; which name notwithstanding doth also agree with other plants: in English, Pitch Tree: in Low Dutch, Peck boom.

The Temperature and Virtues.

The leaves, bark, and fruit of the Pitch Tree, are all of one nature, virtue, and operation, and of the same faculty with the Pine trees.