Ta 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Bed Gum. 

 LiquidAmbar Htiiruciflua — I.inn. 

 The red or sweet gum. or satin-walnut as 

 it is known abroad and quite commonly called 

 in this country, is a timber growth that is at- 

 tracting more attention at the present time 

 than any other of the American continent. 

 It is of the family Hamamelidacea, the sane- 

 family to which the witch-hazel — 

 l irginiana — belongs. Its 

 range of growth is from Connecti 

 cut to southeastern .Missouri and 

 Arkansas; south to Florida Cape 

 Canaveral and Tampa Bay— and 

 fhe Trinity river district of Texas. 

 The wood is known as sweet gum 

 in Massachusetts, Rhodi Island, 

 Nevi fork, New Jersey, Pennsylva 

 ,ii :l . Delaware, Virginia. West Vu- 



North Carolina, South ' 

 lina. Georgia, Alabama. Florida, Ar 



IS, Kentucky, Missouri, 111] - 



Indiana and Ohio: as liquidamber 

 in Rhode Island. New York, Dela 



New Jersey, Pi i 

 Louisiana, Texas. Ohio and 111' 



I gu n in Virginia. Alabama. 

 Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana; 

 as gum in Virginia; as gum tree in 

 Carolina and Louisiana; as 

 alligator-wood in New Jersey; as 

 bilsted in New Jersey, and as star- 

 leaf gum and satin-walnut in many 



of the lumb.-r markets of the world. 



It i- (rffifortunati thai go ' any 



of the varieties of tin- word should 

 ever have bei " applied to tin- w I. 



Since lli'- term satin-walnut N fal 



more appropriate and more justly 

 descriptive of its character. 



The tri •■ i- Of round shape, with 

 .!, ,,,!: i i, i. in. lies. It ranges in 

 I eight from fifty l;o a hundred and 

 fifty feet. It blooms in April and 

 May. The bark is reddish brown 

 and very rough, broken into scale- 

 plates, from which it is known 

 iod in some parts of 

 the country. The branchlets are 

 usually covered with corky i 

 lli.- stipules are lanceolate, entire. 

 I be li avi - are simple, alternate. 

 slender petioles; rounded in 

 outlini : cordate at the i>ase; palm- 

 ately-lobed, the lobes numbering 

 five to seven, usually five; 

 finely -.1 rat. ; brilliant, s nooth and 



.-; ribs tufted in their angles 



below. The odor is pleasant when the leaves 



arc bruised. The flowers are monoecious; the 



ones growing in a dense, terminal 



raceme; pistillate ones growing in an axillary 



peduncled lucid. The fruit consists of a 



hanging globose ball of woody pointed pods, 



and release the few good seeds 



ach. 



SEVENTEENTH PAPER 

 Of sweet gum Alice Lounsberry says: 

 ' ' This most beautiful tree has many dis- 

 tinctive features. In fact, it seems to have 

 a horror of doing things after any conven- 

 tional pattern. Its ideas are most chaste and 

 original. In the symmetry of their form and 

 texture the star like leaves are perfect, and 



TYPICAL RED GUM FOREST GROWTH, ARKANSAS 



the quaint balls of fruit which hang on the 

 Tr.-.s over the winter arc most interesting. 

 is also the only species of this coun- 

 try. In the south it grows to a greater height 

 than it does northward, and its spicy, fra- 

 grant gum exudes more abundantly from its 

 bark. Amber fluid is the translation of the 

 tree's generic name which was bestowed on it 

 in reference to this L'uni or copal. It is quite 



valuable and is much used as a substitute for 

 storax. The leaves contain tannin. Every 

 year we notice that this tree is being more 

 extensively planted, and in beauty of outline 

 and detail it might almost be said to be un- 

 rivaled. As soon as the summer has begun 

 to wane, the leaves turn a brilliant deep 

 crimson. There is a shining brightness about 

 these leaves, and when a spray of 

 them is gathered they bear well a 

 close inspection; for they are not de- 

 faced or worm-eaten, as is so much 

 of the autumn foliage. The brown- 

 igh-red wood of the sweet gum is 

 smooth and has a fine finish. It is 

 not very strung ami in drying warps 

 badly. It has. however, Keen used 

 as a substitute for black walnut." 



I'. S. Mathews, in his work on 

 Familiar Trees, says that the name 

 sweet gum is derived from liquidus 

 tlii i < 1 ) and the Arabic ambar (am- 

 1,,-ri descriptive of the yellow juice 

 which exudes from the tree. This 

 has a fragrant balsamic odor, which 

 accounts for the name sweet gum. 

 The gum is used for medicinal pur- 

 poses. Mr. Mathews considers the 

 sweet gum superior to the maple 

 oratii e purposes. 



tree reaches its finest growth 

 in the Mississippi valley, although 

 n- entire range of distribution is 

 fully shown "a the map which ac- 

 tios article. The darker 

 dii ates 'lie lo-.-u i.-si stand 

 per acre. 



The recorded dry weight of red 

 gum is 36 1 i" 59% pounds per 



nii.i • foot. The w 1 is dense, the 



fibers closely interlocked, and it is 

 [] - « hat harder than beech. It 

 in- neither smell nor taste. The 

 grain is extremely tine, close and 

 While the surface is dull, it 

 glistens as though frosted, and is 

 not dissimilar to micaceous sand- 

 stone. Only within the last few 

 - has it become a commercial 

 lumber commodity. For years it has 

 been employed abroad for paving 

 blocks and used extensively for fur- 

 niture, for which piurpose it is high- 

 ly esteemed in the English market, 

 but it is only within the last four 

 01 five years that the intrinsic merits 



of the » I have been recognized in 



this country. Its original use in the United 



States was al st entirely for the production 



of I loxes, notably for plug tobacco boxes. Bed 

 gum, with the practical exhaustion of syca- 



1 e, supplanted it almost entirely for this 



purpose. The distribution and uses of the 

 wood are fast widening in this country. It 

 has become a standard material for the mak- 

 ing of doors, interior finish, plug tobacco 



