340 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



or nearly obsolete; stamens usually 4, inserted on the summit of the calyx; anthers 

 minute, usually rudimentary or abortive, rarely fertile; ovary partly inferior, of 2 

 united carpels terminating in elongated subulate recurved persistent styles stigmatic 

 on the inner face; ovules numerous. Capsules armed with the hardened incurved 

 elongated styles, free above, septicidally dehiscent at the apex, consolidated by their 

 bases into a globose head; pericarp thick and woody; endocarp thin, corneous, 

 lustrous on the inner surface. Seeds usually solitary or 2 by the abortion of many 

 ovules, compressed, angulate; seed-coat opaque, crustaceous, produced into a short 

 membranaceous obovate terminal wing rounded at the oblique apex. 



Liquidambar with about four species is confined to the eastern United States, to 

 southern and central Mexico, Central America, southwestern Asia, middle and 

 southeastern China, and Formosa. The species produce hard straight-grained hand- 

 some dark-colored wood and valuable balsamic exudations. Liquid storax, an opaque 

 grayish brown resin, is derived from Liquidambar orientalis, Mill., a native of Asia 

 Minor. 



1. Liquidambar Styracifltia, L. Sweet Gum. Bilsted 



Leaves generally round in outline, truncate or slightly heart-shaped at the 

 base, deeply 5-7-lobed, with acutely pointed divisions finely serrate, with rounded 

 appressed teeth, when they unfold pilose on the lower surface, soon becoming 



glabrous with the exception of large tufts of pale rufous hairs in the axils of the 

 principal veins, at maturity thin, bright green, smooth and lustrous, 6'-7' across, 

 with broad primary veins and finely reticulate veinlets, exhaling when bruised 

 a pleasant resinous fragrance, in the autumn turning deep crimson; their petioles 

 slender, covered at first near the base with rufous caducous hairs, and 5'-<3' long; 

 stipules entire, glabrous, \'-% long. Flowers: staminate in racemes 2'-3' long, 

 covered with rufous hairs, in heads stalked toward the base of the raceme and nearly 

 sessile above, \' in diameter and surrounded by ovate acute deciduous hairy bracts 

 much larger than the lanceolate acute bracts of the female inflorescence ^ across 

 and conspicuous from the broad stigmatic surfaces of the recurved and contorted 

 styles. Fruit I'-l^' in diameter, persistent during the winter, the carpels opening 

 in the autumn; seed ' long and rather longer than its wing, with a light brown coat 

 conspicuously marked by oblong resin-ducts. 



