' LIQUIDAMBAR 



Liquidambar, Linnaeus, Gen. PL 463 (1742); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL i. 669 (1865); Engler 

 u. Prantl, Pfianzenfam. iii. pt. 2, 123 (1891). 



Deciduous trees belonging to the order Hamamelideae. Leaves alternate on long 

 shoots, crowded and almost fascicled on short shoots, long-stalked, simple, palmately 

 lobed, glandular-serrate. Stipules two, attached to the petiole near its base, lanceo- 

 late or subulate, caducous or persisting throughout the summer. 



Flowers monoecious, or in rare cases polygamous, in heads subtended at the 

 base by caducous bracts. Staminal heads, globose or elongated, several in a raceme 

 on an erect axis, which is subterminal ; each head composed of numerous stamens, 

 interspersed with minute scales, without corolla or calyx ; filaments slender ; anthers 

 basi-fixed, oblong-obcordate, dehiscing longitudinally. Pistillate heads solitary, on 

 long pendulous stalks, arising in the axils of the uppermost leaves, composed of 

 numerous confluent flowers, the ovaries embedded in the axis of the inflorescence ; 

 calyces minute, united together and with the ovaries, and bearing on their summits 

 each four or more stamens, with usually aborted anthers ; corolla absent ; ovary two- 

 celled, each cell with numerous ovules ; styles two, recurved, stigmatic above on their 

 inner surface. 



Fruit : a woody spherical head, composed of numerous capsules, consolidated 

 together. Capsule with two valves, opening above to let out the seeds, each valve 

 terminating in a beak (the hardened woody persistent style) ; calyx persistent, either 

 minutely tuberculate or produced above into long spines. Perfect seeds, angled, winged 

 above, one or two in a capsule, the remaining ovules having aborted. Most of the 

 capsules, however, contain only numerous minute unfertile seeds without wings. 



The leaves of Liquidambar resemble strongly those of certain maples ; but in 

 the latter they are always opposite, and not alternate or fascicled as in the former. 

 Moreover, stipules or their scars are present on the petiole near its base in Liquid- 

 ambar, and are absent entirely in Acer. 



Three species of Liquidambar are well known, and occur in cultivation. Besides 

 these there are apparently two species,^ wild in China, which are imperfectly known 

 and not introduced. 



' These are : 



1. Liquidambar Roslhornii, Diels, Flora von Central China, 380 (1901), a small tree occurring in Szechwan ; flowers 

 and fruit unknown. It resembles in foliage L. orientalis. 



2. Liquidambar i^., Hemsley, /ourn. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxiii. 292 (1887). Specimens, consisting of detached leaves and 

 fruits, were sent to Kew from Hankow by Consul Alabaster. Judging from the imperfect material, this is a distinct species. 

 Mr. E. H. Wilson has recently observed a species of Liquidambar, growing on the plain near Kiukiang, in Kiangsi, which is 

 probably the same. Cf. Card. Chron. xlii. 344 (1907). 



III 499 H 



