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Balsam fir   /bˈɔlsəm fər/   Listen
noun
Balsam  n.  
1.
A resin containing more or less of an essential or volatile oil. Note: The balsams are aromatic resinous substances, flowing spontaneously or by incision from certain plants. A great variety of substances pass under this name, but the term is now usually restricted to resins which, in addition to a volatile oil, contain benzoic and cinnamic acid. Among the true balsams are the balm of Gilead, and the balsams of copaiba, Peru, and Tolu. There are also many pharmaceutical preparations and resinous substances, possessed of a balsamic smell, to which the name balsam has been given.
2.
(Bot.)
(a)
A species of tree (Abies balsamea).
(b)
An annual garden plant (Impatiens balsamina) with beautiful flowers; balsamine.
3.
Anything that heals, soothes, or restores. "Was not the people's blessing a balsam to thy blood?"
Balsam apple (Bot.), an East Indian plant (Momordica balsamina), of the gourd family, with red or orange-yellow cucumber-shaped fruit of the size of a walnut, used as a vulnerary, and in liniments and poultices.
Balsam fir (Bot.), the American coniferous tree, Abies balsamea, from which the useful Canada balsam is derived.
Balsam of copaiba. See Copaiba.
Balsam of Mecca, balm of Gilead.
Balsam of Peru, a reddish brown, syrupy balsam, obtained from a Central American tree (Myroxylon Pereirae and used as a stomachic and expectorant, and in the treatment of ulcers, etc. It was long supposed to be a product of Peru.
Balsam of Tolu, a reddish or yellowish brown semisolid or solid balsam, obtained from a South American tree (Myroxylon toluiferum). It is highly fragrant, and is used as a stomachic and expectorant.
Balsam tree, any tree from which balsam is obtained, esp. the Abies balsamea.
Canada balsam, Balsam of fir, Canada turpentine, a yellowish, viscid liquid, which, by time and exposure, becomes a transparent solid mass. It is obtained from the balm of Gilead (or balsam) fir (Abies balsamea) by breaking the vesicles upon the trunk and branches. See Balm.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Balsam fir" Quotes from Famous Books



... species are those which are concerned with the relation of each to light, heat, and moisture. Thus, a river birch will die if it has only as much water as will suffice to keep a post oak in the best condition, and the warm climate in which the balsam fir would perish is just suited to the requirements of a long ...
— The Training of a Forester • Gifford Pinchot
... The Scarlet Letter into a snow-man, who would stand stanch for weeks. Snow-storms in Lenox began early and lasted till far into April. The little red house had all it could do, sometimes, to lift its upper windows above them. In the front yard there was a symmetrical balsam fir-tree, tapering like a Chinese pagoda. One winter morning we found upon one of its lower boughs a little brown sparrow frozen stiff. We put it in a card-board coffin, and dug out a grave for it beneath the fir, with a shingle head-stone. The funeral ceremonies had for the two mourners a ...
— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne
... is it seen to stand up above all other peaks. It takes its name from a landslide which occurred many years ago down its steep northern side, or down the neck of the grazing steed. The mane of spruce and balsam fir was stripped away for many hundred feet, leaving a long gray streak visible ...
— In the Catskills • John Burroughs
... swamps of the northern states, an alternation of growth taking place without human agency. Extensive tracts of tamarack (Larix Americana) may be seen in northern Wisconsin that are dying out, and being succeeded by the balsam fir (Abies balsamea), which may be probably caused by the partial drainage of the swamps, from the decay or removal of a fallen tree that had obstructed the outlet." The writer of this work resided for a period ...
— Life: Its True Genesis • R. W. Wright


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