LIN 



L I Q 



the internodcs : the flowers in a terminating 

 umbel, which is four-or five-cleft, with dichoto- 

 mous rays : the petals are yellow with villose 

 claws, and turning tawny : the calyx acuminate 

 and rugged at the edge. It is a native of Afri- 

 ca, flowering ill June and July. 



Culture. — These plants may be increased by 

 seeds and layers, or cuttings. 



The two first sorts arc raised by sowing the 

 Seeds in the early spring months, as March or 

 the following month, "the former in fields or 

 plantation-grounds, where the soil is fresh, 

 good, and well reduced into order by frequent 

 digging over, or ploughing and harrowing, in 

 narrow drills, or broadcast, and raked or liar- 

 rowed in with a light harrow ; the plants being 

 afterwards kept perfectly clean from weeds by 

 repeated hoeings. 



Towards the end of August, when the plants 

 have attained their full growth, and begin to 

 turn yellow at bottom, and brown at top, and 

 their seeds to ripen, it is proper time to pull them ; 

 though, if it were not for the sake of the seed, 

 they might be pulled a little before the seeds 

 ripen, by which the flax is generally better co- 

 loured and finer; but if suffered to stand till 

 the seeds are fully ripe, it is commonly stronger, 

 somewhat coarser, and more in quantity. It 

 should be pulled up by handfuls, roots and 

 all, shaking off" all the mould; then either 

 spreading them on the ground by handfuls, or 

 binding them in small bunches, and setting 

 them upright against one another, for ten days 

 or a fortnight, till thev are perfectly dry, and the 

 seed fully hardened, then housed, and the 

 seed thrashed out, cleaned, and placed in a dry 

 airy situation, being afterwards put up for use. 

 The flax, after being rippled and sorted, should 

 be carried to a pond of nearly stagnant water, 

 being placed in it with the bundles crossing 

 each other in different directions, so as to keep 

 the whole in a close compact state, being kept 

 just below the surface of the water, by proper 

 weights applied upon it. It should remain in 

 this steep till the stems become brittle and the 

 bark readilv separates, when it. must be taken 

 out and spread thinly on a short pasture, being 

 occasionally turned until it becomes perfectly 

 bleached and dry, when it is in a proper state 

 for the purpose of being converted into flax. 



The latter, or perennial sort, should be sown 

 in a bed or border of good earth, in shallow drills 

 at the distance of six inches ; and when the 

 plants are two or three inches in height they 

 should be thinned to the same distances, and 

 in autumn be planted out in the places where 

 they arc to grow. But it is probably a better 

 practice to sow them at once in the places 



where thev are to grow, thinning them out 

 properly afterwards. 



The three other sorts may be best increased 

 by planting cuttings of the branches in pots of 

 light fresh earth, plunging: them in the tan hot- 

 bed, or by layers laid down in the later summer 

 months. When the plant* in either mode have 

 stricken good root, they may be removed into 

 separate pots, and be managed as other tender 

 exotic plants that require the protection of the 

 green -house. 



Thev may likewise be raised from seeds when 

 they can be procured, which should be sown 

 in pots and placed in a hot-bed in the spring 

 season. 



A few plants of the two first sorts may be 

 introduced in the clumps and borders of the 

 pleasure-ground ; and the three other sorts af- 

 ford variety in green-house collections among 

 other potted plants. 



LION'S FOOT. See Catananche. 



LION'S TAIL. See Phlomis. 



LIQUIDAMBAR, a genus furnishing plants 

 of the hardy deciduous tree kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Monoecia 

 Polyandria, and ranks in the natural order of 

 ConiJercB. 



The characters are : that the male flowers are 

 numerous, on a long, conical, loose ament : 

 the calyx a common four-leaved involucre ; 

 leaflets ovate, concave, caducous ; the alternate 

 ones shorter : there is no corolla : the stamina 

 have numerous filaments, very short, on a body 

 convex on one side, flat on the other: anthers 

 upright, twin, four-furrowed, two-called : the 

 female flowers at the base of the male spike, 

 heaped into a globe: the calyx an involucre as 

 in the male, but double : perianthiums proper 

 bell -shaped, cornered, several, connate, warty : 

 there is no corolla: thepistillumis an oblong germ: 

 growingtotheperianthium: styles two, awl-shap- 

 ed : stigmas growing on one side, length of the 

 style, recurved, pubescent : the pericarpium has 

 as many capsules, ovate, one-celled, bivalve at 

 the tip, acute, disposed into a globe, woody : 

 the seeds several, oblong, glossy, with a mem- 

 brane at the point mixed with a gr?at many 

 chaffy corpuscles. 



The species are : l.L. Siyracijlua, Maple- 

 leaved Liquidambar, or Sweet Gum : 2. L. 

 imherle, Oriental Liquidambar. 



In the first, in its native situation, the trunk 

 is commonly two feet in diameter, straight, and 

 free from branches to the height of about fif- 

 teen feet ; from which the branches spread and. 

 rise in a conic form to the height of forty feet 

 and upwards from the ground: theleavcsarefive- 

 pointed, divided into so many deep sections, (or 



