CHAP. CV1JI.

bai.sama'cea:. liquida'mbau.

2049

catkins solitary, situated below the male, and upon longer stalks; globose,consisting of numerous ovaries, each surrounded by a few scales, andhaving two cells. Styles 2, long. Fruit a kind of cone, composed of in-durated connected scales, in the cavities of which lie obconical, 2-lobed,2-celled capsules. Seeds numerous, or solitary by abortion; compressed,membranous, winged, attached internally to the middle of the dissepi-ments in a peltate manner. Embryo inverted in the midst of albumen.— Species 3. Inhabiting the warmer parts of North America, and Mexico,the Levant, and the tropics of India. Deciduous trees, yielding balsam.Leaves alternate, simple, or lobed, with glandular serratures at the edges.Stipules deciduous. ( Blume , as quoted in Lind/. Nat. Syst. Sot., and N. Du,Ham. For a long time, only two species were known to European bota-nists ; one a native of Asia Minor, the other of the temperate parts ofNorth America; but Blume states that there is a third, which inhabits thetropics of the south of Asia, and more particularly Java, even reaching asfar as New Guinea. ( Blume FI. Jav.)

Genus I.

LIQUIDA'MBAIl L. The Liquidambar. I ah. Syst. Monai'ciaPolyandria.

Identification. Lin. Gen., 1076.; Reich., 1174.; Schreb., 1452. CJayi. Mitch., 12. j Gsrtn., t. 90. ;Juss., 410.

Synonymes. Alting?Vi Noronha;‘Liquidambar, Fr. ; Ambarbaum, Gcr.

Derivation. From liquidus, liquid, and ambar, amber; the plants exuding a liquid gum.

Description, §c. Deciduous trees, natives of North America and theLevant; cultivated in British pleasure-grounds for the beauty and fragranceof their foliage.

If 1. L. StyracFflua L. The Sweet Gum Liquidambar.

Identification. Lin. Sp., 1418.; Ait.'Hort. Kew., 3. p.365.; Reich., 4. p. 171.; Mat. Med., 204.;Gsertn. Fruct., 2. p.58. ; Kalm Itin., 2. p. 102.; Du Roy Harbk., 1. p. 369.; Blackw., t 485. ;Michx. Arb., 3. p. 194. ; N. Du Ham., 2. p. 42.

Synonymes. Liquidambar &rbor Pluk. Aim ., 224. t. 42. f. 6., Cat. Car., 2. p. 65., Du Ham. Arb., 1.1.139.; -Storax iceris folio Iiaii Hist., 1481.; Liquidambar r£sineux, Copalme de I’Amerique, Liqui-dambar Copal, Fr. ; Fliesender Ambarbaum, Ger.

Engravings. Blackw,, t. 485.; Pluk. Aim., t. 42. f. 6. j Cat. Car., t. 65.; Du Ham. Arb., 1. 1.139. ;Michx. Arb,, 3. t. 4.; our Jig. 1961.; and the plates of this tree in ourjast Volume.

Spec. Char., §c. Leaves palmately lobed, with the sinuses at the base of theveins villose. ( IVilld.') A deciduous tree, a native of North America, whereit grows from 30 ft. to 50 ft. high, and flowers in March or April.

Description, §c. The liquidambar generally forms a branching tree, havingvery much the appearance of a maple ; and varying from 30 ft. to 50 ft. inheight, with a trunk from 5 ft. or 6 ft.,to 12 ft. or 15 ft. in circumference. Ac-cording to Michaux, in America, whengrown among other trees, it has a per-fectly straight trunk, nearly uniform inthickness, to the height of 30 ft. or 40 ft.before it begins to divide into branches.

In Europe, it seldom exceeds 40 ft. inheight. The bark of old trees is thick,and deeply furrowed ; but on youngtrees it is comparatively smooth. Ondry gravelly soil, it does not attain agreater height than 15ft. or 20 ft.;and its secondary branches become co-vered with a dry flaky bark, the platesof which are attached at the edge, in-ti R

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