112 ON LIQU1DAMBAR FJKMOSANA, HANCE. 
exhibiting in the same individuals such variations in the form of the 
leaves, and differing so much in the absence, presence, and amount of 
pubescence, and in its being confined to the ribs, extended to the 
whole under-surface, and even sometimes densely clothing the petioles 
and branchlets, that the identitv of the Formosan and continental 
plants was at once evident. 
. To sum up what further is known of its distribution I must add that 
it grows in the neighbourhood of Canton, though only seen in a 
twiggy osier-like form, doubtless owing to its being cut down for fuel; 
that Mr. Swinhoe informs me it is found in woods some miles above 
Amoy, where it is called " Chee-pong ;" and that, to judge from a 
rough pen-and-ink sketch sent me several years ago by Capt. Eustace 
W. Jacob, and marked " Pahm-pon," I believe it is also a native of 
Chu-san. 
A careful examination of the three or four fruiting and numerous 
sterile specimens I possess has led me to the unexpected conclusion 
that the Chinese tree cannot be separated specifically from the North 
American L. styracijlua ; and, if this opinion is well founded, the fact 
is perhaps scarcely inferior in interest to Dr. Hooker's identification of 
the Macedonian Pinus peuce, Griseb., with the P. excelsa of the 
Himalayas. Unfortunately, I have not access at present to specimens 
of either that or the Oriental Sweet-gum tree; but, on a minute com- 
parison with the plate of the former given by Hayne in his c Arznei- 
kunde' (fosc. xi. t. 25), which is specially lauded for its accuracy by 
M. Alphonse De Candolle, I can detect no difference at all, except that 
in L. styraciflua the leaves, which are otherwise smooth, have the 
axils of the nerves on the under surface conspicuously bearded. But, 
setting aside the diversities presented by the Chinese tree, it is surely 
impossible to assign much value to this characteristic, although, in- 
deed, L. oriental™ is exclusively distinguished from the Atlantic 
species by its glabrous leaves. (Lindley, Med. and Econ. Bot. 73 ; 
A. DC. Prod. xvi. sect. 2. 158.*) In Platanus, which Th. F. L. Nees, 
Endlicher, A. Brongniart, Meissner, Horaninow (Tetractys Nat.), 
Grisebach (Grundr. d. Syst. Bot.), and J. G. Agardh (Theor. Syst. Nat.) 
* Professor A. Gray, however, says of L. styraciflua, " leaves smooth and 
shining," with no mention whatever of pubescence. (Man. Bot. N. U. S. 
second edition, p. 148.) 
