HARDWOODS ON THE COUNTRY ESTATE 



783 



The Sweet Gum or Liquidambar 

 in the forest this tree sends up a perfectly straight columnar trunk, branchless to the crown. in 

 fields it spreads as shown. the handsome fall coloration, dark purple-red, adorns its star- 

 shaped leaves 



geous in the fall. A very hard tree to 

 move from its wild location in the 

 forest but easily grown from seed, in 

 fact if you own a field to the east of one 

 or two sweet gums it will be a continuous 

 fight to keep them from peopling your 

 field with a thicket of their young, for 



the prickly balls which form the seeds 

 are blown for several hundred yards 

 from the parent tree and it seems that 

 nearly all germinate. The reason is, 

 of course, that this burr is but the 

 receptacle containing several true seeds, 

 at least one of which is sure to be 



