LIQUIDAMBAR ORIENTALIS
- Liquidambar orientalis, Miller, Gard. Dict. No. 2 (1768); Oliver, in Hooker, Icon. Plant. xi. 13, t. 1019 (1867); Hanbury, Science Papers, 139, with figure (1876); Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, ii. No. 107, t. 107 (1880).
- Liquidambar imberbe, Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 365 (1789); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2053 (1838).
A tree attaining in Asia Minor 40 to 60 feet in height. Bark longitudinally fissured, with corky irregularly quadrangular scales on the ridges, the orangecoloured inner bark visible in the fissures. Young shoots glabrous. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 6) small, averaging 3 inches wide by 2½ inches long, palmately cut about half-way into five oblong triangular acute lobes, the upper three lobes usually with one to four lobules; base truncate or widely cordate; margin with shallow glandular serrations; upper and lower surfaces quite glabrous in cultivated trees, but with axil tufts of pubescence at the base of the under surface in wild specimens. Petiole glabrous, swollen at the base, and bearing near its insertion two minute triangular stipules.
Flowers and fruit similar to those of Liquidambar styraciflua, but smaller. Fruiting head about 1 inch in diameter; capsules with more slender beaks than in the preceding species; calyx slightly tuberculate and not spiny.
In winter the twigs resemble those of the American species, but are more slender, with smaller leaf-scars and buds, which are reddish and have six glabrous ciliate scales; short shoots glabrous.
This species does not apparently develop corky ridges on the branches.
Distribution
Liquidambar orientalis is known to occur wild only in the south-western part of Asia Minor lying opposite to the island of Rhodes, and in Cilicia, near Alexandretta. It forms woods of considerable extent in the district of Sighala, near Melasso, and in the vicinity of Budrum, Mughla, Djova, Ughla, Marmoriza, and Isgengak. According to Maltass, who obtained specimens for Hanbury, there is a fine forest of this species between the village of Caponisi and the town of Mughla, many trees attaining 40 feet in height, while in other forests, according to native report, they were as high as 60 feet.[1]
Liquid storax, a balsamic resin, obtained from the inner bark of the tree by boiling it in water, is exported in considerable quantity from Smyrna and other Levantine ports, the bulk of this product going to China and India, where it is known in commerce as rose maloes.[2] Liquid storax is used to a small extent by druggists in this country, and is one of the ingredients of '" Friar's Balsam."
- ↑ Elwes passed through this district in 1874 on the way from Makri to Ephesus, but saw no trees of any size. This is a very hot country in summer, myrtle, oleander, and arbutus being the common shrubs.
- ↑ Rose maloes is a corruption of rassamala, the Javanese and Malay name for Altingia excelsa, Noronha, a tree allied to Liquidambar, which yields by incisions in the bark a sweet-scented resin. Cf. Bretschneider, Bot. Sinicum, iii. 464 (1895).
