Hamamelidaceae. 



85 



Liquidambar. Sweet Gum. 

 (Family Hamamelidaceae). 



More or less percurrent and coni- 

 cial trees: deciduous. Twigs 

 moderate, roundish and smooth 

 or with variously developed corky 

 ridges or thick wings: pith angled 

 or somewhat star-shaped, subcon- 

 tinuous, brownish. Buds solitary, 

 sessile or sometimes developing 

 into spurs the first season, ovoid, 

 the lateral often reduced and 

 flattened against the twig; when 

 well developed, with half-a-dozen 

 exposed scales. Leaf-scars alter- 

 nate, half-elliptical or triangular, 

 somewhat raised: bundle-traces 3, 

 large: stipule-scars lacking. 



Winter-character references: 

 L. Maximowiczil. Shirasawa, 254, 

 pi. 6. L. orientale. Schneider, f. 

 107. L. Styraciflua. Blakeslee & 

 Jarvis, 332, 334, 480, pi.; Brendel, 

 pi. 2; Schneider, f. 11, 23. 



Twigs glabrescent: bud-scales ciliate. L. Styraciflua. 



Like Betula and some other trees, Liquidambar is very 

 apt to show a short basal elongation of many buds before the 

 first winter. 



The sweet gum, like bur oak, rock elm and some other 

 trees, is sometimes found with round thin-barked twigs, and 

 sometimes has its twigs furnished with thick corky ridges, 

 especially on the upper side. Cases of this kind have been 

 made the subject of an extensive paper published by Miss 

 Gregory in the Botanical Gazette for 1888 and 1889. 



