LIQUIDAMBER
Liquidambar styraciflua
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The liquidamber is at all times beautiful, and in winter the broad, corky wings along the twigs give it a singular appearance, adding much to one’s interest in the tree. It is unusual to find so much color in corky ridged stems as in those of the liquidamber. The stems of the cork elm and the mossy cup oak have these peculiar corky layers, but neither of them have smooth, polished stems between the broken ridges, nor such radiant color as those of the liquidamber. When this tree grows in open situations its trunk divides a short distance from the ground, and the branches form a pyramidal head. In moist Southern forests, however, where the liquidamber grows to be very tall, its trunk is straight, a uniform size in diameter, and often undivided into branches to the height of seventy or eighty feet. Michaux describes a liquidamber which he found growing in a swamp in Georgia, which measured fifteen feet and seven inches in circumference at five feet from the ground, and these trees sometimes grow to be over 150 feet high when the conditions are favorable to their growth.
The wood is heavy and close-grained and is used in cabinet making, for fruit boxes, and for the outside finish of houses. Professor Sargent says that the future supply of the wood is reasonably certain from the fact that the real home of this tree in those parts of the country where it attains its greatest development is in deep swamps, always inundated every year during several weeks at a time, and incapable of being drained and cultivated. The generic name, Liquidambar, from liquidus (liquid), ambar (amber), was given to this tree by Linnæus in reference to the fragrant juice which exudes from its stems. It is sometimes collected and used as an ointment in medicine. The flow of resinous balsam increases according to the warmth of the climate in which the liquidamber is found. The specific name, styraciflua, from the Latin word styrax (storax), also alludes to this juice, storax being a resinous gum.
The liquidamber is found growing in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and from there southward to Florida and westward. It grows well in gardens in the neighborhood of Boston; but it is liable to suffer after severe winters throughout Eastern New England.
The witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is a small tree or shrub, 10 to 30 feet high, with a smooth brown bark and flat branches, covered through the winter with woody fruit capsules. It is found on the borders of moist woods throughout New England and its profusion of yellow thread-like flowers in the bare November woods make it a striking object in autumn. The combination on a single tree, at the same time, of blossoms and ripe fruit is unusual in any climate, and the witch-hazel is the only example of it in the Northeastern States. Linnæus gave it the Greek name hamamelis, which means bearing flowers together with the fruit.
SASSAFRAS
Sassafras sassafras
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