8 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
HAMAMELIDE. 
provinces in southwestern Asia Minor; and Liguidambar Formosana is found in China and on the 
island of Formosa.! 
All the species produce hard straight-grained handsome dark-colored wood and valuable balsamic 
exudations.” 
ing the height of thirty or forty feet, and is said to form forests 
of considerable extent in the extreme southwestern part of Asia 
Minor. Introduced into France toward the middle of the eighteenth 
century by the French consul at Smyrna, it was first cultivated in 
Europe at the King’s Garden in Marly (Duhamel, Traité des Ar- 
bres, i. 366.— Nouveau Duhamel, ii. 44.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. iv. 
2053, £. 1963, 1964). 
1 Hance, Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. 5, v. 215 (1866) ; Jour. Bot. viii. 
274. — Hooker, Jcon. xi. 14, t. 1020.— Forbes & Hemsley, Jour. 
Linn. Soc. xxiii. 291. 
Liquidambar acerifolia, Maximowicz, Bull. Acad. Sci. St. Péters- 
bourg, x. 486 (él. Biol. vi. 21) (not Unger) (1866). 
Liquidambar Mazimowiczii, Miquel, Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. 
iii. 200 (1867). — Franchet, Pl. David. i. 357. 
Liquidambar species, Hemsley, Jour. Bot. xiv. 207 (1876). 
The Chinese Liquidambar is a handsome tree thirty to forty feet 
in height, distinguished from the other species by its dull rather 
opaque leaves and by the long-awned scales which surround the 
female flowers and harden in the development of the fruit. From 
Liquidambar Formosana, and from an imperfectly known tree of 
central China, which is probably an undescribed species in this 
genus (Forbes & Hemsley, /. c. 290), the wood used in making tea- 
chests and the forms in which brick-tea is compressed is largely 
obtained. 
In southern Japan Liquidambar Formosana is occasionally culti- 
vated as an ornamental tree, and fine specimens exist in the Botanic 
Garden of the Imperial University in Tokyo. 
2 From Liquidambar orientalis is derived liquid storax, an opaque 
grayish brown resin. The origin of this substance remained un- 
known until recent years, although the bark has been widely 
exported from Asia Minor, and in general use at least since the 
beginning of the Christian era, especially in India and China, 
where the largest part of the product is still consumed. The 
extraction of the resin is carried on by wandering tribes of Tur- 
comans in the forests of southwestern Asia Minor. The process, 
as described by Fliickiger & Hanbury, consists in the removal of 
the outer bark of the tree, which is not productive ; the inner bark 
is then scraped off with a peculiar knife made for the purpose, and 
is stored in vats until a sufficient quantity is collected ; it is then 
boiled with water in copper kettles, and the resin which now sepa- 
rates and rises to the surface is skimmed off. In order to obtain 
the residue which the first process has not separated, the boiled 
bark is put into hair bags, and subjected to pressure while hot 
water is poured over it. In this way are obtained a product of an 
inferior quality and the cakes of foliaceous fragrant bark known 
in European pharmacy as cortex thymiamatis. The resin is packed 
in barrels, or with water in goatskins, and shipped to Constanti- 
nople, Smyrna, and Alexandria, the largest part of the annual crop, 
which is estimated at from sixty to eighty thousand pounds, being 
sent by the way of the Red Sea to Bombay. In India and China 
gum storax appears to be chiefly used in perfumery, as a protection 
It is said to be 
expectorant and stimulant, and to be valuable in the treatment of 
against insects, and in the temples as incense. 
bronchial affections ; it is praised as a remedy for diphtheria, and 
has been recommended as a cure for gonorrhea; in Europe it is 
still used as an ingredient in some old-fashioned remedies (A. Ri- 
chard, Hist. Nat. Méd. ed. 3, iii. 193. —Lindley, Med. Fl. 321. — 
Rosenthal, Syn. Pl. Diaphor. 203. — Hanbury, Pharm. Jour. Xvi. 
417, 461; Bonplandia, v. 114, t.; Jour. de Pharm. xxxi. 198. — 
Fliickiger & Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 241.— Guibourt, Hist. 
Drog. ed. 7, ii. 305.—Spons, Encyclopedia of the Industrial Arts, 
Manufactures, and Raw Commercial Products, ii. 1682. — Balfour, 
Encyclopedia of India, ed. 3, ii. 721.— Baillon, Traité Bot. Med. 
770, £. 2401-2403. — U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1430). 
The American species, Liquidambar Styracifiua, yields from natu- 
ral fissures in the bark or by incision small quantities of balsamic 
resin, which is produced more freely in the southern states and in 
It flows from the 
trees in the form of a semitransparent yellowish brown liquid with 
a balsamic odor and a bitter acrid taste, and upon exposure gradu- 
ally hardens and turns to a darker color. The product of Ligquid- 
ambar Styraciflua, known as liquidambar or copalm balm, is now 
considered to be identical in its properties with the liquid storax 
obtained from Liguidambar orientalis, and to be useful for the same 
Another product is obtained by boiling the young 
branches in water; the substance which rises to the surface is 
Mexico and Central America than in the north. 
purposes. 
dark-colored and nearly opaque, but has the same properties as 
copalm balm. A syrup prepared from the bark of this tree has 
been employed with advantage in some parts of the country in 
the treatment of dysentery and catarrhal affections ; the concrete 
juice is used as a chewing-gum to sweeten the breath, and some- 
In the south the bark has 
been successfully used in camp-hospitals in the treatment of diar- 
rhea and dysentery (Medical and Surgical History of the War of 
the Rebellion, pt. ii., i. Medical History, 47) ; and it is now consid- 
times as an ingredient in ointments. 
ered a useful and valuable mucilaginous astringent (Dale, Pharma- 
cologia, 406. — Pomet, Hist. Gen. Drog. pt. i. 282.— Linneus, Mat. 
Med. 152. — Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, ii. 38, t. — 
Bergius, Mat. Med. ii. 798. — B. S. Barton, Coil. ed. 2, i. 16. — 
Hayne, Arzn. xi. t. 25.— Nees von Esenbeck, Pl. Med. t. 95. — A. 
Richard, J. c. 193. — Lindley, /. c. 322.— Pereira, Elements Mat. 
Med. ed. 4, ii. pt. i. 336. — Royle, Mat. Med. 562. — Griffith, Med. 
Bot. 581, £. 254. — Rosenthal, J. c. — Guibourt, J. c. 305, f. 445. — 
Spons, J. c.— Baillon, 7. c. 1772, f. 2404.— Johnson, Man. Med. 
Bot. N. Am. 146, f. 128, 129.— Parke, Davis & Co., Organic Mat. 
Med. 176. — U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1843). 
From Liquidambar Formosana a dry terebinthinous resin of 
agreeable fragrance is obtained, which is believed by Flickiger 
& Hanbury to be the Styraz liquida folio minore described by Ray 
as imported from Amoy (Hist. Pl. iii. Appx. 233). It is used by the 
Chinese, as is also the product of the allied Altingia Chinensis, as 
a stimulant, alterative, and anti-hemorrhagic remedy, and in the 
treatment of wounds and sores (Fliickiger & Hanbury, /. c. 246. — 
Smith, Chinese Mat. Med. 205. — Spons, /. c. 1683). 
Corky excrescences, developed on the trunk and root-stalk of 
Liquidambar Formosana and known as pigs’ tubers (chii-ling), 
from their resemblance to pigs’ dung, are a popular remedy in 
China in the treatment of fevers and urinary disorders (Smith, 
lc. 171). 
