THE LINDENS AND LIQUIDAMBER 



grows in open situations its trunk divides a 

 short distance from the ground, and the branches 

 form a pyramidal head. In moist Southern 

 forests, however, where the liquidamber grows 

 to be very tall, its trunk is straight, a uniform 

 size in diameter, and often undivided into 

 branches to the height of seventy or eighty 

 feet. Michaux describes a liquidamber which 

 he found growing in a swamp in Georgia, 

 which measured fifteen feet and seven inches 

 in circumference at five feet from the ground, 

 and these trees sometimes grow to be over 

 150 feet high when the conditions are favorable 

 to their growth. 



The wood is heavy and close-grained and is 

 used in cabinet making, for fruit boxes, and 

 for the outside finish of houses. Professor 

 Sargent says that the future supply of the 

 wood is reasonably certain from the fact that 

 the real home of this tree in those parts of the 

 country where it attains its greatest develop- 

 ment is in deep swamps, always inundated 

 every year during several weeks at a time, and 

 incapable of being drained and cultivated. 

 The generic name, Liquidambar, from liquidus 

 (liquid), ambar (amber), was given to this tree 

 by Linnaeus in reference to the fragrant juice 



which exudes from its stems. It is sometimes 



10 i 45 



