34 LIQUIDAMBAR LIRIODENDRON 



L. STYRACIFLUA, Limueus. SWEET GUM. 



A deciduous tree up to 150 ft. high in a wild state, but not much more than 

 half as high in England. It has a straight, erect trunk, with slender branches 

 forming (as the tree is usually seen in this country) a narrow, pyramidal head. 

 Branchlets smooth and round at first, but during their second year they turn 

 grey, and often begin to form corky wings after the fashion of the English 

 elm. Leaves maple-like, usually five- sometimes seven-lobed, 5 to 7 ins. wide, 

 scarcely as long, heart-shaped at the base ; the lobes minutely toothed, ovate- 

 lanceolate ; upper surface smooth and glossy, the lower one with tufts of hair 

 in the axils of the veins ; stalk slender, 2^ to 4 ins. long. Male flowers in 

 small round heads arranged on a downy spike 2 or 3 ins. long ; female 

 inflorescence rather larger, \ in. wide. Seed-vessels in a roundish cluster i to 

 1 1 ins. across. 



Native of the eastern United States, often in swampy ground. It was 

 introduced in the seventeenth century, and has long been valued for its 

 stately form and handsome foliage. It is often mistaken for a maple, but 

 from all maples is, of course, distinguished by the alternate leaves. In 

 autumn its foliage turns to brilliant shades of crimson and orange. The tree 

 produces a fragrant resin, known as "sweet gum." The timber, although 

 not of first quality, is largely imported under the name of " satin walnut," 

 for furniture-making. Under cultivation it likes a good loamy soil, and a 

 moderately moist but not a swampy position. Elwes mentions a tree at 

 Godinton, near Ashford, as the tallest known to him in this country ; in 1907 

 it was 82 ft. high. The species occasionally bears fruit at Kew. 



LIRIODENDRON. MAGNOLIACE^E 



A genus of two species, one North American, one Chinese. They 

 are deciduous trees closely related to the Magnolias, but differing from 

 them in the truncate, never pointed leaves, the differently shaped, terminal 

 winter bud, and closed seeoXyessels. Leaves alternate ; flowers solitary 

 at the end of a short branch; sepals three; petals six; carpels densely 

 packed on a spindle-shaped column. 



The tulip trees are gross feeders, and will only attain their best in 

 good deep soil. They are impatient of disturbance at the root, and 

 should be given a permanent place early. Like Magnolias, they are 

 probably most successfully transplanted in May. Seeds are produced 

 in immense quantities, but comparatively few are fertile. Even in 

 America it is said of the native species that barely 10 per cent, can 

 be expected to grow. Still seeds can now be cheaply obtained from 

 American nurserymen, and they afford the best means of increase. The 

 varieties may be grafted on seedlings of L. Tulipifera in March ; given a 

 little heat in a propagating case, they unite very readily. 



L. CHINENSE, Sargent. CHINESE TULIP-TREE. 



(L. Tulipifera var. chinense, Hemsley.) 



Introduced to this country in 1901, but little can yet be said of this tree. 

 It is perfectly hardy, and is growing admirably at Kew, where in 1913 one 

 of the original specimens was 16 ft. high. It was first noticed in China in 

 1875, m ^e Lushan Mountains, and was subsequently found by Henry, in 



