HAMAMELIDACEAE 193 



The wood is difficult to season and much incHned to warp, 

 and for that reason was not used much for lumber up to half a 

 century ago. But the depletion of other hardwoods has led manu- 

 facturers to fall back on this and other formerly despised species 

 more and more, and it has been found that with proper treatment 

 it is well adapted for furniture, caliinet-making, interior finish, 

 boxes, slack cooperage, and various other purposes. In fact it 

 now largely takes the place of black walnut, which it somewhat 

 resembles. At the present time it is used more than any other 

 wood for boxes made by the veneer process, i. e., of thin sheets 

 stiffened at the edgs by thicker strips of some other wood, which 

 prevent warping and at the same time give strength to the whole 

 box. Another use which has developed in the last fifteen years 

 or so is for the wooden cores of the spools on which photographic 

 films are wound ; for in such small pieces the tendency to warp is 

 not perceptible. 



There are some interesting notes on this species in Wailes's 

 report on the geology of Mississippi (ISo-ij, and three pages are 

 devoted to it in Miscellaneous Special Report No. 3 of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, on the resources of Mississippi, pub- 

 lished in 1883. See also the bulletins l)y Chittenden and \'on 

 Schrenk cited in the bibliography. 



The sweet gum grows in all sorts of soils except the poorest 

 and driest, in every region in Alabama and doubtless in every 

 county. It makes about 4% of the present stand of timber in the 

 state, rising to over 5% in regions 6C, 7, 9 and 14, and falling be- 

 low 2% apparently only in 4 (where it is confined to the lower 

 slopes of the mountains). 12 and 13. In addition to its native 

 haunts in the forests and swamps, it is rather common as a sort 

 of weed in old fields, low pastures, and along roadsides. In damp 

 sandy soils, especially in the long-leaf pine regions, it often has 

 the dimensions of a large shrub, with no large trees of it in sight, 

 but it does not seem to bloom in that stage, and just how it per- 

 petuates itself there is not obvious. 



