Cultivation
The Oriental Liquidambar was introduced into France about the middle of the eighteenth century by the French Consul at Smyrna, and speedily passed into England, where it was cultivated in 1759 by Miller.
It grows very slowly in this country, where it is very rarely seen in cultivation. There is a tree in Kew Gardens, about 15 feet high, the age of which is unknown. According to Nicholson it was 1o feet high in 1884. It has a twisted, crooked trunk, dividing about 6 feet up into two main stems. The branches are numerous and drooping, the habit of this tree being in marked contrast to that of a tall Liguidambar styraciflua close beside it, and probably results from the young branchlets being continually killed by the frost.
A larger and very old tree at White Knights, near Reading, in the grounds of Mr. J. Heelas, was in 1904 about 25 feet high by 3 feet 4 inches in girth, and was decayed at the top, with many dead branches and a hole in the butt close to the ground.
This tree is commonly cultivated in the Mediterranean region; and Mr. Hickel, Inspector in the French Forest Service, informs us that there is a very large specimen, rivalling in size the American species, in the square near the railway station at Montpellier. In the park at Baleine[1] (Allier) there is a tree 75 feet high by 7 feet in girth.
Elwes measured a tree in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, which was 40 feet high; but was told that it did not ripen seed; and in the Botanic Garden at Padua he saw a tree about 50 feet high by 4 feet in girth, which in May had abundant fruit of the preceding year upon it, but could find no seeds in them.(A.H.)
LIQUIDAMBAR FORMOSANA
- Liquidambar formosana, Hance, Ann. Sc. Nat. 5me série, v. 21 5 (1866), and Journ. Bot. 1870, p. 274; Oliver, in Hooker, Icon. Plant. xi. 14, t. 1020 (1867); Hemsley, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxiii. 291.
- Liquidambar acerifolia, Maximowicz, Mél. Biol. vi, 21 (1866) and viii. 419 (1871).
- Liguidambar Maximowiczii, Miquel, Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd, Bat. iii, 200 (1867).
A tree[2] attaining, in China, 80 feet in length and 15 feet in girth. Young shoots with scattered long hairs. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 8) widely cordate at the base, usually with three broad oblong-triangular acute or acuminate lobes, the outer lobes occasionally giving off two short additional lobes; margin, occasionally lobulate, sharply serrate, ciliate; palmately three-nerved with two strong lateral nerves; upper surface dull with scattered long hairs; lower surface light green
