232 THE WITCH-HAZEL FAMILY. 



so frequently seen as in the Mississippi basin, where it attains to a great size. 

 Usually it borders streams and swamps, or grows in springy, low places 

 through woods. About the star-shaped foliage there is in summer a deep, 

 lustrous and wholesome look, while in the autumn it becomes brilliant and 

 gay. On some of the trees the leaves turn on their upper surfaces to deep 

 purple, remaining green underneath, but more often the whole foliage be- 

 comes a deep vinous red. And year after year it is interesting to watch 

 how constant the individual trees are to the colour they have chosen. 

 Through the winter the corky wings which are produced on the young 

 branches make the tree a conspicuous individual. 



It was Linnseus who named the Liquidambar and this he did from the 

 liquid exudation of its bark which is of amber colour. As this juice hardens 

 it forms a fragrant gum often called copal. This herbalists collect, it being 

 useful as a substitute for storax in external applications, or in the treatment 

 of catarrh. The leaves too when bruised have a pleasant, resinous fragrance 

 and are rich in tannin. 



THE PLANE=TREE FAHILY. 



Platanacecr. 



BUTTON=WOOD, PLANE=TREE. BUTTON=BALL TREE. 



Plate I n Its occiden talis. 



Outer bark : dark brown; thin, ])eeling freely and showing the ])olished. white 

 inner bark. Buds: concealed throughout the summer under the hollow base of 

 the leaf petioles. Leaves : with downy petioles ; orbicular with taper-pointed apex 

 and squared or cordate base. The edges coarsely toothed or often three to five 

 lobed; the sinuses between them rounded; densely pubescent, becoming glabrate 

 in age. Ftoivers : small, in round heads; monoecious. Fruit: growing closely in 

 solitary round balls which hang from the ends of long, wiry peduncles. They be- 

 come dry and remain on the trees through the winter, or until their seeds are 

 scattered by the wind. 



In moist woods or bordering streams where the cover is formed of 

 millions and millions of hanging leaves, some fantastic in outline, others 

 heart-shaped, or rounded, or again oval or shield-shaped, and some are 

 crumpled and others smooth and lustrous ; there broadly spread, are also the 

 ruggedly formed ones of the button-wood, and partly hidden by their wav- 

 ing masses are, perhaps, its quaint balls of friiit. As the celebrated Planes 



