136 TREES GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. 



trees. " That is a typical degenerate," is a criticism called 

 forth by one poor tree that was almost covered with them. 

 And it was so. When broken open little green worms are found 

 to be inhabitants of the galls, and they seem to thrive amazingly 

 well in the porous substance. 



SWEET GUM. BILSTED. ALLIGATOR TREE. STAR- 

 LEAVED GUM. {Plate LXV.) 



Liquiddmbar Styraciflua. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Witch-hazel. Rounded; branches, 60-140 feet. Conn, and southern April, May. 



slender. N. Y. southward and 



westward to III. 



Bark: reddish brown ; very rough. Branchlets : usually covered with corky 

 ridges. Stipules: lanceolate; entire. Leaves: simple; alternate; with slen- 

 der petioles ; rounded in outline ; cordate at the base ; palmately-lobed, the lobes 

 from five to seven, usually five ; finely serrate ; brilliant, smooth and lustrous 

 above ; ribs tufted in their angles below. Odour : pleasant, when bruised. 

 Flowers : monoecious ; the staminate ones growing in a dense terminal raceme ; 

 the pistillate ones growing in an axillary, peduncled head. Fruit : a hanging 

 globose ball of woody, pointed pods which open and release the few good seeds 

 contained within each one. 



This most beautiful tree has many distinctive features. In 

 fact it seems to have a horror of doing things after any conven- 

 tional pattern. Its ideas are most chaste and original. In the 

 symmetry of their form and texture the star-like leaves are per- 

 fect, and the quaint balls of fruit which hang on the trees over 

 the winter are most interesting. The tree is also the only species 

 of this country. In the south it grows to a greater height than it 

 does northward, and its spicy, fragrant gum exudes more abun- 

 dantly from its bark. Amber fluid is the translation of the tree's 

 generic name which was bestowed on it in reference to this 

 gum or copal. It is quite valuable and is much used as a sub- 

 stitute for storax. The leaves contain tannin. Every year we 

 notice that this tree is being more extensively planted, and in 

 beauty of outline and detail it might almost be said to be unri- 

 valled. As soon as the summer has begun to wane the leaves 

 turn a brilliant, deep crimson. There is a shining bright- 



