Pitch n.
 1. A thick, black, lustrous, and sticky substance obtained by boiling down tar. It is used in calking the seams of ships; also in coating rope, canvas, wood, ironwork, etc., to preserve them.
    He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith.   --Ecclus. xiii. 1.
 2. Geol. See Pitchstone.
 Amboyna pitch, the resin of Dammara australis. See Kauri.
 Burgundy pitch. See under Burgundy.
 Canada pitch, the resinous exudation of the hemlock tree (Abies Canadensis); hemlock gum.
 Jew's pitch, bitumen.
 Mineral pitch. See Bitumen and Asphalt.
 Pitch coal Min., bituminous coal.
 Pitch peat Min., a black homogeneous peat, with a waxy luster.
 Pitch pine Bot., any one of several species of pine, yielding pitch, esp. the Pinus rigida of North America.


 Hem·lock n.
 1. Bot. The name of several poisonous umbelliferous herbs having finely cut leaves and small white flowers, as the Cicuta maculata, Cicuta bulbifera, and Cicuta virosa, and the Conium maculatum. See Conium.
 Note: ☞ The potion of hemlock administered to Socrates is by some thought to have been a decoction of Cicuta virosa, or water hemlock, by others, of Conium maculatum.
 2. Bot. An evergreen tree common in North America (Abies Canadensis or  Tsuga Canadensis); hemlock spruce.
    The murmuring pines and the hemlocks.   --Longfellow.
 3. The wood or timber of the hemlock tree.
 Ground hemlock, or Dwarf hemlock. See under Ground.

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