21G LANDSCAPE GARDEMNG. 



like the Sugar maple, though darker in color and firmer in 

 texture. It may also be easily distinguished from that tree, 

 by the curious appearance of its secondary branches, which 

 have a peculiar roughness, owing to the bark attaching 

 itself in plates edgewise to the trunk, instead of laterally, as 

 in the usual manner. The fruit is globular, somewhat 

 resembling that of the buttonwood, but much rougher, and 

 bristling with points. The male and female catkins appear 

 on different branches of the same tree early in spring. 



This tree grows in great perfection in the forests of New 

 Spain. It was first described by a Spanish naturalist, Dr. 

 Hernandez, who observed that a fragrant and transparent 

 gum issued from its trunk in that country, to which, from 

 its appearance, he gave the name of liquid amber. This is 

 now the common name of the tree in Europe ; and the gum 

 is at present an article of export from Mexico, being chiefly 

 valued in medicine as a styptic, and for its healing and 

 balsamic properties. " This substance, which in the shops 

 is sometimes called the white balsam of Peru, or liquid 

 storax, is, when it first issues from the tree, perfectly liquid 

 and clear, white, with a slight tinge of yellow, quite bal- 

 samic ; and having a most agreeable fragrance, resembling 

 that of ambergris or styrax. It is stimulant and aromatic, 

 and has long been used in France as a perfume, especially 

 for gloves."* In the middle states a fragrant substance 

 sometimes exudes from the leaves, and, by incision, small 

 quantities of the gum may be procured from the trunk ; but 

 a warmer climate appears to be necessar}- to its production 

 in considerable quantities. 



We hardly know a more beautiful tree than the Liquid 



* Arboretum Brit. 2051. 



