Liquidambar oa 
growing in Tower Grove Park, St. Louis, that about half the trees either showed 
no sign of the corky wings or in some cases only a slight trace of them. In Kew 
Gardens the same difference is noticeable in trees of the same age growing close 
together, some being without corky-winged branchlets, while others have them much 
developed. 
The leaves usually turn a most brilliant colour in autumn, the tint being red 
purple, or yellow. 
IDENTIFICATION 
In summer the maple-like but alternately-placed leaves are unmistakable. In 
winter (Plate 200, Fig. 2) the following characters are available : Twigs moderately 
stout, slightly angled, greenish, glabrous ; lenticels scattered, prominent. Leaf-scars 
alternate, obliquely set on projecting pulvini, arcuate or semicircular, marked by 
three bundle-dots. Terminal bud about § inch long; lateral buds smaller, varying 
in size, and directed outwards from the twig at an angle of about 45°; all ovoid, 
acute at the apex, and composed of six to seven imbricated scales, which are green 
with brown margins, vaulted on the back, shining, glabrous, ciliate, and often 
minutely cuspidate at the apex. 
Short shoots are numerous in this species, and, unlike the long shoots, are 
pubescent. All the shoots show at the base ring-like marks, indicating where the 
accrescent scales of the terminal bud of the preceding year have fallen off in spring. 
VARIETIES 
Though Oersted considered the Mexican and Guatemalan trees to constitute 
distinct forms, no varieties have been clearly made out. The species occurs over 
a wide extent of territory and in diverse climates; and certain differences are 
observable in the shape, size, and pubescence of leaves in wild specimens; but 
these scarcely warrant the division of the species into geographical forms. In dry 
regions in Mexico the under surface of the leaf is covered with dense pubescence. 
Leaves with only three lobes occur on adult trees in Mexico and Guatemala; but as 
three-lobed leaves are frequently borne on young shoots of the common form, this 
peculiarity scarcely merits the rank of a variety. (A. H.) 
DISTRIBUTION 
The Liquidambar or Sweet Gum,’ as it is usually called in the United States, 
has a very wide range of distribution. Its most northerly station is, according to 
Sargent,” near Newhaven, Connecticut, where it only grows near the coast as a 
small tree, 40 to 60 feet high. Farther south it extends westwards as far as 
S.E. Missouri and Arkansas, and in the south to Florida and Texas, reappearing 
on the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala. In the maritime region of the South 
Atlantic States and in the Lower Mississippi basin it is one of the most abundant 
1 Also known as Red Gum. 2 Garden and Forest, ii. p. 232. 
