The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland/Volume 3/Liquidambar

by Henry John Elwes and Augustine Henry

 

LIQUIDAMBAR

 

Liquidambar, Linnæus, Gen. Pl. 463 (1742); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. i. 669 (1865); Engler u. Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. pt. 2, 123 (1891).

 

Deciduous trees belonging to the order Hamamelideæ. Leaves alternate on long shoots, crowded and almost fascicled on short shoots, long-stalked, simple, palmately lobed, glandular-serrate. Stipules two, attached to the petiole near its base, lanceolate or subulate, caducous or persisting throughout the summer.

Flowers monœcious, or in rare cases polygamous, in heads subtended at the base by caducous bracts. Staminal heads, globose or elongated, several in a raceme on an erect axis, which is subterminal; each head composed of numerous stamens, interspersed with minute scales, without corolla or calyx; filaments slender; anthers basi-fixed, oblong-obcordate, dehiscing longitudinally. Pistillate heads solitary, on long pendulous stalks, arising in the axils of the uppermost leaves, composed of numerous confluent flowers, the ovaries embedded in the axis of the inflorescence; calyces minute, united together and with the ovaries, and bearing on their summits each four or more stamens, with usually aborted anthers; corolla absent; ovary twocelled, each cell with numerous ovules; styles two, recurved, stigmatic above on their inner surface.

Fruit: a woody spherical head, composed of numerous capsules, consolidated together. Capsule with two valves, opening above to let out the seeds, each valve terminating in a beak (the hardened woody persistent style); calyx persistent, either minutely tuberculate or produced above into long spines. Perfect seeds, angled, winged above, one or two in a capsule, the remaining ovules having aborted. Most of the capsules, however, contain only numerous minute unfertile seeds without wings.

The leaves of Liquidambar resemble strongly those of certain maples; but in the latter they are always opposite, and not alternate or fascicled as in the former. Moreover, stipules or their scars are present on the petiole near its base in Liquidambar, and are absent entirely in Acer.

Three species of Liquidambar are well known, and occur in cultivation. Besides these there are apparently two species,^[1] wild in China, which are imperfectly known and not introduced.

The species in cultivation are:—

1. Liquidambar styraciflua, Linnæus. North America.
Shoots glabrous. Leaves large, usually five-lobed, only occasionally lobulate in margin; under surface glabrous, except for dense tufts of pubescence in the axils of the main nerves at the base, and occasional minute tufts at the junctions of the lateral and main nerves.

2. Liquidambar orientalis, Miller. Asia Minor.
Shoots glabrous. Leaves small, five-lobed, margin with large lobules; under surface quite glabrous.

3. Liquidambar formosana, Hance. China, Formosa, Tonking.
Shoots pilose. Leaves large, usually three-lobed; under surface pilose, without conspicuous axil-tufts.

 

LIQUIDAMBAR STYRACIFLUA, Sweet Gum

 

Liquidambar styraciflua, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 999 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2049 (1838); Oliver, in Hooker, Icon. Plant. xi. 13 (1867); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. v. 10. t. 199 (1893), and Trees N. Amer. 340 (1905).

Liquidambar macrophylla, Oersted, Am. Cent. xvi. t. 10 (1863).

 

A tree, attaining in America 160 feet in height and 17 feet in girth. Bark deeply and longitudinally fissured, with broad ridges covered by thick corky scales.

Young shoots green, glabrous. Leaves (Plate 199, Fig. 7) large, averaging 6 inches broad and 5 inches long, variable in form, cordate or almost truncate at the base, five-nerved, palmately and deeply cut into five oblong-triangular acuminate lobes, the terminal lobe largest, the basal lobes smallest, rarely lobulate; serrations shallow, non-ciliate; upper surface dark green, shining, glabrous; lower surface light green, shining, glabrous except for dense tufts of pubescence in the axils of the nerves at the base and occasional minute tufts at the junctions of the lateral and main nerves. Petiole glabrous, slightly grooved on its upper side, dilated at the base, near which are two scars indicating where the lanceolate stipules have fallen off in early summer.

Fruiting heads, about 1½ inch in diameter, hanging on the tree during winter after the fall of the seeds in autumn, calyx margins with irregular small tubercules; capsules with two stout style appendages, forming woody spines, one terminating each valve. Perfect seeds few, with short terminal wing; imperfect seeds numerous, minute, angled, without wings.

The branchlets^[2] of many trees of this species are remarkable for their corky wings, which begin to develop in the second season and increase in width and thickness for many years. These wings occur on lateral branches, on the upper side only, in three or four parallel ranks; but on vertical branches they are borne irregularly on all sides. Trelease^[3] observed in the case of Liquidambar trees 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 ⅝ 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,^[4] as it is usually called in the United States, has a very wide range of distribution. Its most northerly station is, according to Sargent,^[5] 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 forest trees, but only attains its full size and perfection in deep rich swamps and river bottoms. I have seen it of immense size in the Lower Wabash Valley in Southern Illinois, where Ridgway measured a tree no less than 164 feet high by 17 feet in girth with a clear stem 80 feet long, and another 137 feet high by 113 feet in girth, which was 94 feet to the first branch. Plate 144 a, taken from a photograph for which I am indebted to the U.S. Bureau of Forestry, represents the tree (Example M) mentioned in Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. v. 67, by Ridgway, which was 12½ feet in girth at the base, 78 feet to the first limb, and contained 7888 feet board measure. It grew two miles from Mount Carmel on land now cleared. Such trees, however, are now hardly to be found except in very inaccessible places. On the coast region of North Carolina, Ashe and Pinchot give its dimensions as 100 feet high and 5 or 6 feet in diameter.

The largest that I saw in the Eastern States was a tree in the Clifton Park, near Baltimore, which was 71 feet by 5 feet 9 inches. In New England, near Boston, Sargent says that it suffers from frost in severe winters, and I saw none in cultivation so large as those in England. I found it in a very different and more beautiful form in the mountains near Jalapa, Mexico, at about 4000 feet elevation, where in the month of March in open forests its leaves were conspicuous by their scarlet colour, but the trees were not of extraordinary dimensions. In America it grows mixed with Nyssa, Liriodendron, maples, and oaks. Ashe says that it fruits annually or every other year, but that much of the seed is abortive, and that it springs up commonly on damp hillsides and bottom lands, and also shoots from the stool after the trees have been felled.

 

History and Cultivation

According to Loudon, this tree was first mentioned by Francis Hernandez, a Spanish naturalist, who published a work on the natural history of Mexico in 1651 at Rome. In 1681 it was sent home by Banister to Bishop Compton, who planted it in the Palace Gardens at Fulham. It had become common in cultivation in Michaux's time, but he says that even in France it had never produced seed. In Northern Italy it grows well, and I found a good-sized tree on the Isola Madre in Lake Maggiore, which bore seed, from which I have raised plants.

Though this tree will grow to considerable size in the warmest parts of England, and on account of its beautiful autumnal tints is highly ornamental, yet it requires a much greater degree of heat and moisture than our climate affords to bring it to perfection, and has been somewhat neglected by nurserymen on account of its tenderness when young. I have raised it from imported seeds, which do not keep well when extracted from the fruits, but the seedlings grow so slowly that the more common way of raising it is from layers. It does not transplant well, and requires a good deal of moisture in the soil and a warm, sheltered situation. Its branches are easily broken by the wind, and though it does not come early into leaf, is often injured by late frosts.

 

 

Plate 144: Liquidambar in America (A), Nyssa sylvatica in America (B)

Plate 144.

AB
LIQUIDAMBER IN AMERICANYSSA SYLVATICA IN AMERICA

 

 

Remarkable Trees

The largest trees mentioned by Loudon were at Strathfieldsaye (64 feet) and at Syon (59 feet), the latter tree being reported in 1849 to measure 84 feet by 4 feet. We cannot identify either of them now; but at Syon there is a tree, leaning considerably to one side, which was about 75 feet by 6 feet in 1904. The tallest which I have seen is at Godinton, the property of G. Ashley Dodd, Esq., near Ashford, Kent, which in 1907 was 82 feet by 6 feet, a piece estimated at 12 feet long having been broken off the top; and the next to it is one at Petworth, which Sir Hugh Beevor measured in 1894, 84 feet by 5 feet 7 inches; another tree at the same place, 7 feet 6 inches in girth, has been damaged at the top by wind.

Miss Woolward tells me of a fine tree at Escot, Devonshire, the seat of Sir John Kennaway, which was referred to by Bunbury as the largest known to him, and in 1905 measured 75 feet by 7 feet 8 inches. At Cobham Hall, Kent, there is one which I measured as 80 feet by 5 feet 9 inches; and at Broom House, Fulham, there are two trees on the lawn of about the same height and over 6 feet in girth.

At Barton,^[6] Suffolk, there are four trees, which were planted in 1825-26, the two largest measuring, in 1904, 71 feet by 5 feet 6 inches and 52 feet by 3 feet 2 inches. At Arno's Grove, Middlesex, a tree drawn up in a plantation, measured by Henry in 1904, was 83 feet by 3 feet 10 inches. A large tree which we have not seen was reported^[7] to be growing on the lake side at Chevening Park, near Sevenoaks, Kent. At Arley Castle there is a tree 65 feet by 4 feet 3 inches.

In Scotland we have no records worth mentioning, though the species exists in the south-west.

In Ireland there is a good tree at Fota, which in 1903 measured 57 feet high by 8 feet in girth.

 

Timber

Though neglected until recent years this tree is now very largely cut for timber in the Mississippi valley, and has been introduced to Europe under the name of satin walnut. Owing to its low price it has been tried, under the name of red gum, for street paving with very bad results, though, according to Stone,^[8] it is very resilient, and if creosoted may be a useful wood for this purpose.

A careful investigation of the mechanical properties of this wood was made by A.K. Chittenden of the U.S.A. Bureau of Forestry in 1905,^[9] from which I take the following:—"Red Gum is perhaps the commonest timber tree in the hardwood bottoms and drier swamps of the Southern States, growing best on alluvial soil of great fertility, which is liable to heavy floods in winter and spring, and often covered with water from January till May. In the best situations it reaches a height of 150 feet and a diameter of 5 feet. It reproduces well only where there is sufficient light, as the seedlings will not bear shade. It also sprouts readily from the stump up to about fifty years of age, but such shoots rarely form large trees. The demand for the timber has increased rapidly during the last few years, owing to the increasing scarcity of better timber, and about 75 per cent. of the best grades, 'Nos. 1 and 2 clear heart,' are exported to Europe for furniture and inside fittings. It is said to make very good flooring, and is now largely used for railway waggon box boards, the price in the U.S.A. being about 27 dollars per 1000 feet for firsts and seconds, as compared with 41 dollars for cypress. From 1900 to 1902 much of the wood was cut into 3-inch by 9-inch planks, to be used for cutting paving blocks in London, but in 1902 the market for this gave way, and the mills are now trying to introduce this wood as a paving-block material in the United States, where several large cities were in 1905 considering the use of this wood. The qualities necessary for a good paving block are durability, close grain, and the power of resisting abrasion. These qualities are found in red gum."

A very unfortunate experiment was made in Whitehall in the autumn of 1901, when the Corporation of Westminster accepted the tender of an American contractor to pave this street with "red gum." The surveyor seems to have supposed that red gum in America was the same as red gum in Australia, where the name is applied to several species of eucalyptus, which have a good reputation for street paving. Be this as it may, the paving wore out so soon that a large proportion was taken up again in July 1902, and a long and costly lawsuit followed. The contractor alleged (1) that the defects arose from the bad foundations of the road; (2) from excessive watering; (3) from stones having been forced into the pavement; and the case was not finally settled till October 1905.

Mr. Weale tells me that an inferior quality of this wood containing much sapwood is also known in the trade as "hazel pine." 'Satin walnut" is worth wholesale from 2s. to 2s. 3d. per cube foot, and "hazel pine" only rs. 3d. to 1s. 6d. In colour the former is a light fawn, often marked with a rich dark stripe; but is so deficient in strength and durability, and even when well seasoned is so liable to warp and twist, that it is only used for the cheapest classes of furniture.

Michaux says that though much inferior to black walnut and cherry, it was used a good deal in his time in America for picture-frames, bedsteads, coffins, and furniture. Red gum is now much used for veneer in the United States. It furnishes 17 per cent of all the veneer produced, the quantity in 1905 being over 187 million square feet.^[10] I brought from St. Louis a slab of this timber cut from a tree of 30 inches diameter, of which the sapwood was about 6 inches thick and much paler in colour. Though cut 4 inches thick this plank cracked badly in drying; and it will evidently be a very difficult wood to dry without warping. It has a very close, fine grain, and takes a good polish.(H.J.E.)

 

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.^[11]

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.^[12] Liquid storax is used to a small extent by druggists in this country, and is one of the ingredients of '" Friar's Balsam."

 

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^[13] (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. 5^me 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^[14] 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 with dense long pubescence. Petiole pilose, with two subulate, persistent, pubescent, glandular stipules.

Fruiting heads spiny, 1½ inch in diameter, each capsule surrounded by several long spines arising from the calyx, and resembling the two indurated styles which terminate the valves. Perfect seeds few, or absent in many capsules, with narrow short wings.

This species is widely distributed over the central and southern provinces of China, and occurs also in Tonking, Hainan,^[15] and Formosa. In Hupeh, where it has not been seen over 1000 feet altitude, the tree is valuable, as its timber is used for making the Hankow tea-chests. The Chinese call it Fêng tree.^[16]

It is doubtful if it will prove hardy, and is extremely rare in cultivation in Europe, the only plant known to us being one in Kew gardens, which is trained against a wall, and is interesting for its beautiful foliage, which lasts till late in November. It was introduced by seeds sent by Consul Alabaster from Hankow in 1884. (A.H.)

 

1. These are:—
   1. Liquidambar Rosthornii, Diels, Flora von Central China, 380 (1901), a small tree occurring in Szechwan; flowers and fruit unknown. It resembles in foliage L. orientalis.
   2. Liquidambar sp., Hemsley, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxiii. 292 (1887). Specimens, consisting of detached leaves and fruits, were sent to Kew from Hankow by Consul Alabaster. Judging from the imperfect material, this is a distinct species. Mr. E. H. Wilson has recently observed a species of Liquidambar, growing on the plain near Kiukiang, in Kiangsi, which is probably the same. Cf. Gard. Chron. xiii. 344 (1907).
2. See Miss Gregory in Botanical Gazette, xiii. 282 (1888).
3. Garden and Forest, 1890, p. 195.
4. Also known as Red Gum.
5. Garden and Forest, ii. p. 232.
6. Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 28.
7. Garden, xxxviii. 208 (1890).
8. Timbers of Commerce, 113 (1904).
9. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Forestry, Bulletin, No. 58 (1905).
10. U.S. Dept. Agric. Forest Service Circular, No. 51 (1906).
11. 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.
12. 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).
13. Pardé, Arbor. Nat. des Barres, 208, note 1 (1906).
14. The peculiarities of the buds, leaves, and stipules have been fully described by Lubbock, in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxx. 495 (1894).
15. Swinhoe, Journ. Bot. i. 257, says it is the commonest tree in the mountain forests of Hainan. Hance, loc. cit., says that at Canton old stumps buried beneath the soil sucker freely.
16. It yields a resin, Fêng-hsiang; and a caterpillar, which feeds on its leaves, produces a coarse kind of silk, used for fishing-lines.