PAESLET FAMILY. 



145 



2. LIQUID AM 'BAE, L. (Sweet-gum.) 



[Name compoimded from Latin. Liquidus, fluid, and Arabic, Ambar, amber ; in allusion 

 to a fragrant liquid that sometimes exudes from the tree.] 



F/oifers usually monoecious, in globular heads or catkins; sterile fowers 

 in conical clusters, naked ; stamens numerous, intermixed with minute 

 scales. Fertile flowers consisting of many 2-celled, 2-beaked ovaries, sub- 

 tended by minute scales in place of a calyx, all more or less cohering and 

 hardening in fruit, forming a spherical head ; the pods opening between 

 the 2 awl-shaped beaks. Styles 2, stigmatic down the inner side. Ovules 

 many, but only one or two perfecting. Seeds with a wing-angled seed- 

 coat!^ Catkins racemed, nodding in the bud enclosed by a 4-leaved decid- 

 uous involucre. 



1. L. styracif 'lua, L. Leaves rounded, deeply 5 - 7-lobed, smooth and 

 shining, glandular-serrate, the lobes pointed. 



Sweet Gum. Bilsted. 



A large tree, 60-70 feet high and 2 or more feet in diameter ; the corky layer of the 

 bark often developed in ridges on the smaller branches. Leaves 3-5 inches in diameter, 

 BO deeply lobed as to appear star-shaped, fragrant when bruised. Fruit a globose prickly 

 head, an inch or more in diameter. 



Woods. Connecticut, southward. Fl. April. Fr. September. 



Obs. One of our finest forest trees, and deserving of more attention 

 than it has yet received. It is especially conspicuous in autumn, when 

 its beautiful star-shaped leaves assume a deep crimson color. The wood 

 is fine-grained but warps readily, and soon decays when exposed to mois- 

 ture. The balsamic liquid, from which the tree receives both its gene- 

 ric and specific names, does not seem to be developed at the north. It 

 has been obtained from trees growing irj the warm parts of the Union : 

 it is an aromatic liquid, having the consistence of honey, and has the 

 stimulant qualities of the Storax of the shops. ^ 



Oeder XXXin. UMBELLIF'ER^. (Parsley Family.) 



Herbs with usually hollow and furrowed stems, alternate, generally much dissected leaves 

 v^ilh petvAes more or less dilated and sheathing at base, and flowers in usually ivolucrate 

 umbels. Calyx entirely adherent to the ovary, the limb obsolete or merely a toothed bor- 

 der. Stamens and petals 5, inserted, alternately in the disk that crowns the ovary and 

 surrounds the base of the 2 styles ; petals mostly with an inflexed point. Fruit of 2 seed- 

 like dry carpels (mertca?-j5s) , cohering by their inner face, marked with 5 primary ribs 

 and often with 5 intermediate (secondary) ones ; the spaces between the ribs often con- 

 taining receptacles of aromatic oil (oil-tubei). Seeds solitary, suspended ; embryo minute, 

 in the apex of copious horny albumen. 



The plants of this family can only be satisfactorily studied with the full-grown fruit. 

 Tlie number of oil-tubes is best seen by making a slice across the fruit and examining it 

 with a magnifier. 



This large and important Order comprises about 200 genera, — and is remarkable for the 

 aromatic and generally harmless character of the fruit — while the herbage (iuclading 

 root, stem and leaves), is often highly deleterious. The species best known on the farm, 

 and in the kitchen-garden, are here noticed. Some medicinal gums are furnished by this 

 Order, such as .^safoetida, Galbanum and Ammoniac. 



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