Liquidambar 501 



growing in Tower Grove Park, St. Louis, that about half the trees either showed 

 no sign of the corky wings or in some cases only a slight trace of them. In Kew 

 Gardens the same difference is noticeable in trees of the same age growing close 

 together, some being without corky-winged branchlets, while others have them much 

 developed. 



The leaves usually turn a most brilliant colour in autumn, the tint being red 

 purple, or yellow. 



Identification 



In summer the maple-like but alternately-placed leaves are unmistakable. In 

 winter (Plate 200, Fig. 2) the following characters are available : Twigs moderately 

 stout, slightly angled, greenish, glabrous ; lenticels scattered, prominent. Leaf-scars 

 alternate, obliquely set on projecting pulvini, arcuate or semicircular, marked by 

 three bundle-dots. Terminal bud about f inch long ; lateral buds smaller, varying 

 in size, and directed outwards from the twig at an angle of about 45 ; all ovoid, 

 acute at the apex, and composed of six to seven imbricated scales, which are green 

 with brown margins, vaulted on the back, shining, glabrous, ciliate, and often 

 minutely cuspidate at the apex. 



Short shoots are numerous in this species, and, unlike the long shoots, are 

 pubescent. All the shoots show at the base ring-like marks, indicating where the 

 accrescent scales of the terminal bud of the preceding year have fallen off in spring. 



Varieties 



Though Oersted considered the Mexican and Guatemalan trees to constitute 

 distinct forms, no varieties have been clearly made out. The species occurs over 

 a wide extent of territory and in diverse climates ; and certain differences are 

 observable in the shape, size, and pubescence of leaves in wild specimens ; but 

 these scarcely warrant the division of the species into geographical forms. In dry 

 regions in Mexico the under surface of the leaf is covered with dense pubescence. 

 Leaves with only three lobes occur on adult trees in Mexico and Guatemala ; but as 

 three-lobed leaves are frequently borne on young shoots of the common form, this 

 peculiarity scarcely merits the rank of a variety. (A. H.) 



Distribution 



The Liquidambar or Sweet Gum,' as it is usually called in the United States, 

 has a very wide range of distribution. Its most northerly station is, according to 

 Sargent,'' near Newhaven, Connecticut, where it only grows near the coast as a 

 small tree, 40 to 60 feet high. Farther south it extends westwards as far as 

 S.E. Missouri and Arkansas, and in the south to Florida and Texas, reappearing 

 on the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala. In the maritime region of the South 

 Atlantic States and in the Lower Mississippi basin it is one of the most abundant 



Also known as Red Gum. '^ Garden and Forest, ii. p. 232. 



