THE SWEET GUM FAMILY 



ALTINGIACEiE Hayne 



LTINGIACE^ consist of probably 5 genera, with about 10 species of 

 trees or shrubs of temperate or warmer regions of the Old and New 

 World. 



They have alternate leaves, which are deciduous or persistent, 

 glandular-toothed, palmately lobed or entire, short or long-stalked, usually with 

 deciduous stipules. The flowers are mostly monoecious, sometimes perfect, clus- 

 tered in heads, surrounded by several deciduous bracts; they are without calyx or 

 corolla. The heads of staminate flowers are in terminal racemes or panicles with 

 numerous stamens intermingled with many small scales. The pistillate flowers 

 are in sohtary, long-stalked axillary heads, the pistil 2-carpelled ; ovary partly in- 

 ferior, containing several or many horizontal ovules in each carpel ; stigma short, 

 persistent or deciduous. The fruit is a hard, dry, many-capsuled head, sometimes 

 armed with stout persisting stigmas; seeds of two kinds, the fertile, which are spar- 

 ingly produced, being samara-hke, or ovate, winged, and usually marked with 

 resinous ducts, the straight embryo imbedded in the fleshy endosperm; the sterile 

 seeds are very numerous, wingless, and angular. 



SWEET GUM 



GENUS LIQUIDAMBAR [CLAYTON] LINN.EUS 

 Species Liquidambar Styraciflua Linnaeus 



HE Sweet gum is also called Bilsted, Star-leaved gum. Red gum, 

 Liquidambar, and Alhgator tree. It occurs from southern Connect- 

 icut to Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Texas and Guatemala, usually in wet, 

 rich soil, bordering streams or swamps. It is a stately forest tree,' 

 reaching a maximum height of 45 meters, with a trunk diameter of 1.5 meters. 



The branches are usually regular and spreading, forming a very symmetrical 

 round tree when growing in the open; in the forest, however, the trunk is tall, 

 slender and straight, the head narrow. The bark is deeply furrowed into 

 broad, scaly ridges, 2.5 to 4 cm. thick, and gray-brown; on young trees and large 

 branches it is thinner and dark gray; the bark of the branches frequently develops 

 several wide, stratified corky wings often 2.5 to 4 cm. broad; the twigs are rather 

 stout and pithy, obscurely angular, at first covered by rusty brown hairs, becoming 



412 



