THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
APRIL,  1874. 
THE  BALSAM  OF  LIQUIDAMB  AR  STYRACIFLUA. 
By  William  Landon  Harrison,  G.  P. 
An  Inaugural  Essay. 
This  balsam,  commonly  known  as  sweet  gum,  is  a  natural  exuda- 
tion from  Liquidambar  gtyraciflua,  a  tree  belonging  to  the  natural 
order  Hamamelacce,  sub-order  Balsamifluce  (Gray).  It  is  indigenous 
to  nearly  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  growing  most  abundantly  in 
the  southern  portion.  It  seems  to  prefer  moist  localities,  as  swamps, 
the  banks  of  rivers,  etc.,  though  it  is  often  found  in  elevated  situa- 
tions and  quite  distant  from  water.  In  favorable  situations,  and 
when  matured,  it  reaches  the  height  of  fifty  to  sixty  feet,  writh  a 
diameter  of  two  to  four  feet. 
The  trunk  is  covered  with  a  grayish,  deeply-furrowed  bark,  and 
the  branches  have  thick  corky  ridges  running  their  entire  length. 
The  leaves  are  palmate,  deeply  five-  to  seven-lobed  ;  lobes  pointed, 
smooth  and  shining ;  of  a  bright  green  color,  becoming  crimson  in 
autumn. 
The  flowers  are  mostly  monoecious,  in  globular  heads  or  catkins ; 
the  sterile  arranged  in  a  conical  cluster,  naked,  stamens  numerous, 
filaments  short.  The  fertile  flowers  consist  of  many  two-celled,  two- 
beaked  ovaries,  subtended  by  minute  scales  in  place  of  calyx,  all 
more  or  less  cohering  and  hardening  in  the  fruit,  forming  a  spheri- 
cal catkin  ;  styles  two ;  ovules  many,  but  only  one  or  two  perfecting. 
The  balsam  is  obtained  from  incisions  in  the  bark.  As  it  first  ex- 
udes it  is  of  a  yellowish  color,  and  of  the  density  of  thick  syrup  ;  by 
standing  it  thickens,  and  after  some  time  becomes  darker  in  color 
and  finally  perfectly  hard.  On  being  broken,  in  the  latter  state,  the 
fracture  presents  a  variegated  appearance,  from  a  dark  brown  to 
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