VI. 2. THE SWEET FERN. 225 



tallow, to make candles. It has sometimes, also, been mixed 

 with beeswax for the same purpose. Candles made of it diffuse 

 a very agreeable perfume, but give a less brilliant light than those 

 made entirely of animal substance. The wax of the bay berry 

 is also made into hard soap with the ley of wood ashes, lime, 

 and common salt; one pound of wax being sufficient for ten 

 pounds of soap, and taking the place of the animal or vegetable 

 oils used in the manufacture of common soaps. A decoction of 

 the root has-been sometimes used as a remedy for dysentery. 



VI. 2. THE LIQUIDAMBER. COMPTONIA. Banks. 



Low shrubs with fragrant leaves, fern-like, long, slender, 

 narrow, and. deeply cut on both sides into roundish lobes, and 

 globular, compound, bristly, bur-like fruits, with roundish, 

 smooth nuts. There is a single species : 



The Sweet Fern. Comptonia asplenifolia. Aiton. 



A fragrant, round-headed bush, about two feet high, abound- 

 ing on hill sides and in the openings in woods. It has the ap- 

 pearance of a miniature tree. The recent shoots are green 

 or of a yellowish or reddish brown, somewhat downy, and 

 sprinkled, as are the leaves and stipules on both surfaces, 

 and the older branches towards the extremities, with minute, 

 yellow, shining, resinous dots. The branches of a year's 

 growth are yellowish brown, with a polished, shining surface, 

 somewhat hairy. The lower ones curve down and then up- 

 wards, forming an inverted arch. The older ones are reddish 

 purple or coppery brown, rather rough, and closely dotted with 

 raised, brown dots. The roots are long and creeping, and throw 

 up numerous stems. 



The leaves are nearly sessile, very long and narrow, from 

 one to six inches long, and less than one inch wide, pointed, cut 

 into large, obtuse-angled teeth, by indentations reaching nearly 

 to the mid-rib, dark green, impressed at the veins above, paler 

 and downy on the mid-rib and veins beneath ; with the margin 

 somewhat reflexed. The stipules are half an inch long, lance- 

 olate, acuminate, auriculate, or half-arrow-shaped, and often 

 30 



