1, I N 



L I Q 



tlie internocks : ibe flowers in a terminating 

 umbel, wliicli is four-or five-cleft, with diclioto- 

 nious rays: the petals are yellow with villosc 

 claws/ and turning lawny : the calyx acuminate 

 anil rugged at the edge. It is a native of Alri- 

 ca, flowcrinc in June and July. 



C/ihure.— Then:: plants may be increased by 

 seeds and layers, or cuttings. 



The two iirst sorts are raised by sowing the 

 seeds in the early spring months, as March or 

 the following month, the former in fields or 

 plantation-grounds, where the soil is fresh, 

 good, and well reduced into order by frequent 

 digging over, or ploughing and harrowing, in 

 narrow drills, or broadcast, and raked or har- 

 rowed in with a light barrow ; the plants being 

 afterv\ards kept perl'cctly clean from weeds by 

 repeated lioeings. 



Towards the end of August, when the plants 

 have attained their full growth, and begin lo 

 turn yellow at bottom, and brown at top, and 

 their seeds to ripen, it is proper time to pull them; 

 though, if it were not for the sake of the seed, 

 they might be pulled a little before the seeds 

 ripen, by which the flax is generally better co- 

 loured and finer; but if suft'cred to stand till 

 the seeds are fully ripe, it is commonly stronger, 

 somewhat coarser, and more in quantity. Jt 

 should be pulled up by bandfuls, roots and 

 all, shaking off all the mould; then either 

 spreading them on the ground by bandfuls, or 

 binding them in small bunches, and setting 

 them upright against one another, for ten days 

 or a fortnight, till they are perfectly dry, and the 

 seed fully hardened, then housed, and the 

 seed thrashed out, cleaned, and placed in a dry 

 airy situation, being afterwards put up for use. 

 The flax, after being rippled and sorted, should 

 be carried to a pond of nearly stagnant water, 

 being placed in it with the bundles crossing 

 each other in different directions, so as to keep 

 the whole in a close compact state, being kept 

 just below the surface of the water, by proper 

 weights applied upon it. It should remain in 

 this steep till the stems become brittle and the 

 bark readdy separates, when it must be taken 

 out and spread thinly on a short pasture, being 

 occasionallv turned until it becomes perfectly 

 bleached and dry, when it is in a proper state 

 for the purpose of being converted into flax. 



The latter, or perennial sort, should be sown 

 in a bed or border of good earth, in shallow drills 

 at the distance of six inches ; and when the 

 plants are two or three inches in height they 

 should be thinned to the same distances, and 

 in autunm be planted out in the places where 

 they are to grow. But it is probably a better 

 practice to sow them at once in the places 



wliere they arc to grow, thinning them out 

 properly afterwards. 



The three other sorts may be best increased 

 by planting cuttings of the branches in pots of 

 light fresh earth, plunging them in the tan hot- 

 bed, or by layers laid down in the later summer 

 months. When the plants in either mode have 

 stricken good root, thev mav be removed into 

 separate pots, and be managed as other tender 

 exotic plants that require the protection of the 

 green-house. 



They may likewise be raised from seeds when 

 they can be procured, which should be sown 

 in pots and placed in a hot-bed in the spring 

 season. 



A few j)lants of the two first sorts may be 

 introduced in the clunips and borders of the 

 pleasure-ground; and the three other sorts af- 

 ford variety in green-house collections among 

 other potted plants. 



LION'S FOOT. See Catananche. 



LION'S TAIL. See Phi.omis. 



LIQUIDAMBAR, a genus furnishing plants 

 of the hardy deciduous tree kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Monoecla 

 Pohjandria, and ranks in the natural order of 

 ConifercB. 



The characters are : that the male flowers are 

 numerous, on a long, conical, loose anient: 

 the calyx a common four-leaved involucre ; 

 leaflets ovate, concave, caducous ; the alternate 

 ernes shorter : there is no corolla : the stamina 

 have numerous filaments, very short, on a body 

 convex on one side, flat on the other: anther* 

 upright, twin, four-furrowed, two-cjlled : the 

 female flowers at the base of the male spike, 

 heaped into a globe: the calyx an involucre as 

 in the male, but double : perianthiums proper 

 bell-shaped, cornered, several, connate, warty: 

 there is no corolla: thepistillumis an oblong germ 

 growing to the perianthium: styles two, awl-shap- 

 ed : stigmas growing on one side, length of the 

 style, recurved, pubescent : the pericarpium has 

 as many capsules, ovate, one-celled, bivalve at 

 the tip, acute, disposed into a globe, woody : 

 the seeds several, oblong, glossy, with a mem- 

 brane at the point inixed with a gr.'at many 

 chaffy corpuscles. 



The species are : 1 . L. Sii/raciflua, Maple- 

 leaved Liquidambar, or Sweet Gum : 2. L. 

 imberhe, Oriental Liquidambar. 



In the first, in its native situation, the trunk 

 is commonly two feet in diameter, straight, and 

 free from branches to the height of about fif- 

 teen feet ; from which the branches spread and 

 rise in a conic form to the height of forty feet 

 and upwards froin the ground; theleavesarefive- 

 pointedj divided into so many deep sections, (or 



