VIR. 311 



Qualities and general Uses. — The Norway spruct- is well 

 known as affording the useful timber deal, which is imported in 

 such vast quantities from Christiana and Bergen, and is ex- 

 tensively used in building; also for masts, spars, scaffolding- 

 poles, implement handles, &c. " It is peculiary valuable in plant- 

 ations as a nurse, from being evergreen and closely covered 

 with branches, by which radiated heat is retained ; from its coni- 

 cal shape and rigid stem, by which it does not suffocate or whip 

 the adjoining trees : and from its being an excellent shelter for 

 game. It will not however grow in elevated situations, where 

 the common pine and larch will flourish."* 



Linnseus f informs us that the Laplanders select the long and slender roots 

 of this Fir, and after boiling them in water for about an hour, with a great 

 quantity of ashes, scrape them while yet warm with a knife, and then twist 

 them into ropes. " They make elegant baskets of the same material, and 

 boats of very slender planks of the wood, sewed together with the roots lest 

 iron should make them too heavy. They also collect the resin, fresh and 

 almost liquid, from the tree, and masticate it until the bitterness is nearly- 

 extracted, after which it is carefully presers'ed and called Tuggkoda, This 

 they are constantly in the habit of eating when assembled in their religious 

 edifices, and though it occasions a great waste of saliva, it may perhaps act 

 as an antiscorbutic. These people are very fond of ardent spirit, and although 

 not able to prepare it themselves, they drink with avidity that which is 

 brought them by strangers ; the consequence is, that after the delirium has 

 subsided, they are seized with intolerable headaches. As a remedy for this 

 they take the young shoots of the Spruce Fir and apply them bruised to the 

 part affected ; some to expedite the cure hold their heads down to the fire, and 

 continue in this position till they are almost lifeless. — In Finmark, the tops 

 of the young shoots are gathered and chopped up with oats, as winter food 

 for horses." 



Spruce beer is made from several species of Fir, and frequently 

 from the one now before us. by boiling the young slioots in 

 water, with the addition of molasses or coarse sugar, which is 

 then put into a cask, and after a slight fermentation is securely 

 corked to prevent the escape of the carbonic acid gas. 



The substances procured from this tree, which are used in me- 

 dicine, are resin and Burgundy pitch. The former, called Thus 

 in the old Pharmacopseias, exudes spontaneously from the bark 

 and concretes as it exudes. It is brought to us in its natural 

 state in the form of tears or small masses, and is often an ingre- 

 dient in the frankincense of the shops. Burgundy pitch is ob- 



• Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Plants, p. 8<M. 

 •j- Flora Lapponica, ed. Smith, p. 28?. 



