2046

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

by Mr. John Tradescant, in whose garden two small plants were growing in 1636, when Johnson published his edition of Gerard's Herball. These plants were again spoken of by Parkinson in 1640. It was afterwards so much propagated, that, in Evelyn's time, it had become more common than P. orientalis. The tree propagating readily by cuttings, and growing with great rapidity, was, in Miller's time, and indeed till 1809, considered hardier than the Oriental plane; but, in the May of that year (not June, as stated in the Planter's Kalendar), a severe frost killed back the young shoots of many of the largest plants of this species in England; particularly those in Richmond Park, at Kew, at Syon House, at Stowe, at Pain's Hill, and at Claremont. There are still large trees, however, in the Chelsea Garden, in the grounds of Lambeth In Scotland, where trees Palace, at Deepdene, and various other places.

of both P. orientàlis and P. occidentàlis were standing near each other, the former escaped; but the latter were generally injured, and many either died the same year, or, after making an ineffectual effort to push, in the summer of "It is very singular," Sang observes, "that the year following, viz. 1810. of the P. occidentalis the largest trees only were killed. Trees of from 20 ft. to 25 ft. in height were little hurt; and smaller ones not at all, at least in every instance that came under our observation. We did not observe, or hear," he adds, "of a single Oriental plane being injured in any part of the country." (Plant. Kal., p. 99.) The severe winter of 1813-14 destroyed a number of the Occidental planes which escaped the severe frost of 1809, so that the tree is at present comparatively rare throughout Britain. An account of the damage done to the Occidental plane tree, in different parts of England, in 1809, will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1810 and 1813; from which it appears, that on the 25th of January, 1809, there was a great flood, occasioned by a sudden thaw; and in the March and April following there was very mild weather, which caused the plane trees to put out their leaves earlier than usual. This was succeeded by a severe frost in the beginning of May, which so far injured the trees, that they appeared sickly throughout all the summer; and in the spring of 1810 they almost all died.

Properties and Uses. The wood of the American plane, according to Michaux, in seasoning becomes of a dull red; but its grain is fine and close, and it is susceptible of a brighter polish than the wood of the beech, to which it bears considerable resemblance. Its concentric circles are divided into numerous sections, by fine medullary rays extending from the centre to the circumference. When the trunk is sawn in a slanting direction, these rays have a remarkable appearance. The cabinet-makers of Philadelphia, however, rarely use the wood, on account of its warping; but it is sometimes employed for bedsteads, which retain their natural colour, and are coated with varnish. The wood soon decays when exposed to the weather. Like the wood of the beech, it shrinks very much in drying, and is very apt to split. As fuel, it does not produce a very lively flame, nor does it yield much charcoal. It contains a great deal more sap wood than the beech; so much so, that a parallelopipedon of green platanus 6 in. square weighed 18 lb. 10 oz.; while a piece of beech of the same size only weighed 15 lb. 13 oz. The platanus, in drying, lost 6 lb. 15 oz., and the beech only 5 lb. 9oz.; which gives 5 lb. 6 oz. of difference in the cubic foot. The platanus weighs, when dry, 51 lb. 8 oz. per cubic foot; and in that state it is easy to work, cutting readily in every direction, and is therefore well adapted for cabinet-work. In Britain, the principal use of the platanus is as an ornamental tree; for which purpose it has all those qualities to recommend it which we have attributed to the Oriental plane, except that it is much less hardy, and, to attain a large size, As a picturesque tree, the Occidental plane requires the presence of water. is thus characterised by Gilpin. He places it after the oak, the ash, the elm, the beech, and the hornbeam, which he considers as deciduous trees of the first rank; saying of both species of platanus, that, though neither so beautiful nor so characteristic as the first-mentioned trees, they are yet worth the

- notice of the picturesque eye. "The Occidental plane has a very picturesque stem. It is smooth, and of a light ash-colour, and has the property of throwing off its bark in scales; thus naturally cleansing itself, at least its larger boughs, from moss and other parasitical encumbrances. This would be no recommendation of it in a picturesque light, if the removal of these encumbrances did not substitute as great a beauty in their room. These scales are very irregular, falling off sometimes in one part, and sometimes in another; and, as the under bark is, immediately after its excoriation, of a lighter hue than the upper, it offers to the pencil those smart touches which have so much effect in painting. These flakes, however, would be more beautiful if they fell off in a circular form, instead of a perpendicular one: they would correspond and unite better with the circular form of the bole. No tree forms a more pleasing shade than the Occidental plane. It is fullleaved; and its leaf is large, smooth, of a fine texture, and seldom injured by insects. Its lower branches, shooting horizontally, soon take a direction to the ground; and the spray seems more sedulous than that of any tree we have, by twisting about in various forms, to fill up every little vacuity with shade. At the same time, it must be owned, the twisting of its branches is a disadvantage to this tree, as we have just observed it is to the beech, when it is stripped of its leaves and reduced to a skeleton. It has not the natural appearance which the spray of the oak, and that of many other trees, discover in winter; nor, indeed, does its foliage, from the largeness of the leaf, and the mode of its growth, make the most picturesque appearance in summer. One of the finest Occidental planes I am acquainted with stands in my own garden at Vicar's Hill; where its boughs, feathering to the ground, form a canopy of above 50 ft. in diameter. The Oriental plane is a tree nearly of the same kind, only its leaf is more palmated; nor has it so great a disposition to overshadow the ground as the Occidental plane; at least, I never saw any in our climate form so noble a shade, though in the East it is esteemed among the most shady and most magnificent of trees.” (Rem. on For. Scen., vol. i. p. 53.)

Soil, Situation, Propagation, &c. What has been said on these subjects as applicable to P. orientalis is equally so to this species; the chief difference being, that P. occidentàlis strikes very readily from cuttings, and is much more like the willow, in requiring, when it is intended to attain a large size, to be planted near water. It is sometimes raised from seeds imported from America. A great many plants were raised in this way by Mr. Cobbett, from 1826 to 1830. The seed is imported in the globular catkins, or balls, which Cobbett broke to pieces by rubbing them with the hand to separate the down or wool, as he calls it, from the seeds. The latter, being sifted out of the wool, he soaked in lukewarm water for 48 hours; he then "took the seeds out of the water, and mixed them with finely sifted fresh earth, 10 gallons of earth to one gallon of seeds; put the mixture upon a smooth place on the bare ground; turned and remixed the heap every day for four or five days, keeping it covered with a mat whenever the turning and mixing was not going on; and as soon as a root began to appear here and there, sowed the seeds upon a bed of sifted earth, mixed with the sifted mould, just as they came out of the heap." (Woodlands, § 473.) The seeds received no other covering than the mould with which they were mixed: they were watered every evening with a fine-rosed watering-pot; and securely shaded from the sun by mats, kept from touching the ground by hoops. These mats were removed every evening about an hour after sunset, and were put on again in the morning by sunrise. In about a week, most of the seeds had germinated, and in a short time afterwards the seed leaves appeared. Being gradually inured to the sunshine, till they were hardy enough to be exposed during the whole of the day, by the month of October their growth was finished, and the wood ripe; and next summer they were fit to transplant into nursery lines. As the Occidental plane is very tender when young, Mr. Cobbett did not commence his operations with the seed till April; and, consequently, his plants were small in October; but, by sowing in frames in February, as is the prac

tice with nurserymen who raise this species from seed, the plants, by autumn, with careful treatment, will be 2 ft. or 3 ft. in height.

Statistics. Recorded Trees. On a little island in the Ohio, 15 miles above the mouth of the Muskingum, the elder Michaux measured a button-wood tree, which, at 5 ft. from the ground, was 40 ft. 4. in in circumference. Twenty years before, General Washington had measured the same tree, and found it to be nearly the same size. In 1802, the younger Michaux found, on the right bank of the same river (the Ohio), about 36 miles from Manitta, a plane tree, the base of which was swollen in an extraordinary manner; and which, at 4 ft. from the ground, measured 47 ft. in circumference. This tree, which exhibited the most vigorous vegetation, began to ramify at 20 ft. from the ground; but Michaux saw several trees which had not a single branch till they had attained the height of 60 ft. or 70 ft. In the notes to Hunter's Evelyn, an Occidental plane at Shadwell Lodge is recorded as remarkable for its speedy growth. When planted, in April, 1744, it was 8 ft. high; and, when mea. sured in 1775, 31 years afterwards, it was 65 ft. 9 in. high, with a clear trunk of 20 ft.; which, at 6 in. from the ground, measured 7 ft. 9 in. in circumference; and at 20 ft., 4 ft. 6 in. At Biel, in East Lothian, there was, in 1812, an Occidental plane near a fishpond, 45 ft. high, with a trunk 7 ft. 1 in. in circumference at 4 ft. from the ground. Another tree, near the same pond, measured 8 ft. 5 in. in circumference. (Plant. Kal., p. 568.)

Existing Trees. In the environs of London, in the gardens of the Archiepiscopal Palace of Lam. beth; in the Chelsea Botanic Garden, and at Mount Grove, are the large trees already mentioned. South of London: in Dorsetshire, at Melbury Park, 100 years old, it is 66 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft., and that of the head 66 ft.: in Hampshire, at Testwood, 70 years planted, it is 80 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 4 ft. 6 in., and of the head 60 ft. in Wiltshire, at Wardour Castle, 40 years planted, it is 40 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 6 in., and of the head 45 ft. North of London: in Bedfordshire, at Ampthill, 85 years planted, it is 50 ft, high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 6 in., and of the head 70 ft.: in Berkshire, at White Knights, 26 years planted, it is 45 ft. high in Essex, at Audley End, 60 years planted, it is 70 ft. high, the circumference of the trunk 10 ft. 10 in., and of the head 69 ft. in Gloucestershire, at Doddington, it is 60 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft., and that of the head 198 ft.: in Herefordshire, at Eastnor Castle, 16 years planted, it is 40 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 ft.; at Haffield, 15 years planted, it is 45 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 9 in., and of the head 29 ft.: in Lancashire, at Latham House, 50 years planted, it is 49 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft., and of the head 42 ft. in Nottinghamshire, at Clumber Park, it is 64 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 4 ft. 10 in., and of the head 66 ft. in Pembrokeshire, at Stackpole Court, 40 years planted, it is 50 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft., and of the head 40 ft. in Radnorshire, at Maeslaugh Castle, it is 70 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft., and of the head 54 ft. in Shropshire, at Hardwicke Grange, 4 years planted, it is 12 ft. high: in Staffordshire, at Trentham, it is 60 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2ft. 6 in., and of the head 40 ft.: in Suffolk, at Ampton Hall, 16 years planted, it is 30 ft. high: in Worcestershire, at Croome, 75 years planted, it is 100 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 6 in, and that of the head 60 ft.: in Yorkshire, at Grimston, 14 years planted, it is 35 ft. high.-In Scotland. In the environs of Edinburgh, at Gos ford House, 24 years old, it is 20 ft. high, with a trunk 1 ft. 8 in. in diameter. North of Edinburgh: in Argyllshire, at Toward Castle, 13 years planted, it is 30 ft. high, with a trunk 7 in. in diameter: in Banffshire, at Cullen House, it is 62 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 4 in., and that of the head 47 ft. in Forfarshire, at Courtachy Castle, 102 years old, it is 72 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft., and of the head 50 ft.; another, 80 years planted, is 70 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2ft., and of the head 45 ft.-In Ireland. In the environs of Dublin, at Cypress Grove, it is 36 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 9 in., and of the head 38 ft.; at Terenure, 15 years planted, it is 20 ft. high. North of Dublin; in the county of Down, at Castle Ward, 130 years old, it is 65 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 4 ft. 3 in., and of the head 52 ft.: in Galway, at Coole, it is 39 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft., and that of the head 42 ft. — In France, at the Botanic Garden at Toulon, 18 years planted, it is 40 ft. high, the circumference of the trunk 3 ft. 2 in.; near Nantes, 80 years old, it is 70 ft. high; at Colombe, near Metz, 70 years old, it is 60 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 4 in., and that of the space covered by the branches 69 ft.; in the Botanic Garden at Avranches, 22 years planted, it is 40 ft. high, the circumference of the trunk 2 ft., and the diameter of the head 20 ft-In Hanover, in the Botanic Garden at Göttingen, are several trees, about 10 years planted, and from 25 ft. to 30 ft. high.-In Cassel, at Wilhelmshoe, 50 years planted, it is 22 ft. high, and the diameter of the trunk 4 ft. 6 in.-In Austria, at Vienna, in the University Botanic Garden, 40 years old, it is 30 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 ft., and of the head 20 ft.; in Rosenthal's Nursery, 20 years planted, it is 30 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 8 in., and of the head 24 ft.; at Brück on the Leytha, 45 years planted, it is 86 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft., and of the head 70 ft-In Bavaria, at Munich, in the English Garden, 40 years planted, it is 60 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 ft. 8 in., and of the head 30 ft.-In Prussia, at Berlin, at Sans Souci, 90 years old, it is 90 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 6 in., and of the head $4 ft.; in the Pfauen-Insel, 40 years planted, it is 48 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1ft., and of the head 30 ft.-In Sweden, in the Botanic Garden at Lund, 42 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1ft., and of the head 36 ft. — In Italy, in Lombardy, at Monza, 29 years planted, it is 80 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 6 in., and of the head 90 ft.

Commercial Statistics. Plants, in the London nurseries, from 3 ft. to 4 ft. high, are 9d. each, or 20s. per hundred; and seeds are ls. per quart. At Bollwyller, plants are from I franc to 1 franc and 50 cents each; and at New York they are 25 cents each.

CHAP. CVIII.

THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER BALSAMA CEE.

LIQUIDA MBAR L. Flowers unisexual; those of the two sexes upon one plant, disposed in capitate catkins. - Male catkins in an upright raceme, each roundish, constituted of numerous stamens, mixed with a few minute scales, disposed upon a connate receptacle. Filaments very short.-Female

catkins solitary, situated below the male, and upon longer stalks; globose, consisting of numerous ovaries, each surrounded by a few scales, and having two cells. Styles 2, long. Fruit a kind of cone, composed of indurated connected scales, in the cavities of which lie obconical, 2-lobed, 2-celled capsules. Seeds numerous, or solitary by abortion; compressed, membranous, winged, attached internally to the middle of the dissepiments in a peltate manner. Embryo inverted in the midst of albumen. -Species 3. Inhabiting the warmer parts of North America, and Mexico, the Levant, and the tropics of India. Deciduous trees, yielding balsam. Leaves alternate, simple, or lobed, with glandular serratures at the edges. Stipules deciduous. (Blume, as quoted in Lindl. Nat. Syst. Bot., and N. Du Ham. For a long time, only two species were known to European botanists; one a native of Asia Minor, the other of the temperate parts of North America; but Blume states that there is a third, which inhabits the tropics of the south of Asia, and more particularly Java, even reaching as far as New Guinea. (Blume Fl. Jav.)

GENUS I.

LIQUIDA'MBAR L. THE LIQUIDAMBAR. Lin. Syst. Monœ'cia
Polyándria.

Identification. Lin. Gen., 1076.; Reich., 1174.; Schreb., 1452.; Clayi. Mitch., 12.; Gærtn., t. 90.;
Juss., 410.

Synonymes. Altingia Noronha; Liquidambar, Fr.; Ambarbaum, Ger.

Derivation. From liquidus, liquid, and ambar, amber; the plants exuding a liquid gum.

Description, &c. Deciduous trees, natives of North America and the Levant; cultivated in British pleasure-grounds for the beauty and fragrance of their foliage.

1. L. STYRACI FLUA L. The Sweet Gum Liquidambar.

Identification. Lin. Sp., 1418.; Ait. Hort. Kew., 3. p. 365.; Reich., 4. p. 171.; Mat. Med., 204.; Gærtn. Fruct., 2. p. 58.; Kalm Itin., 2. p. 102.; Du Roy Harbk., 1. p. 369.; Blackw., t. 485. ; Michx. Arb., 3. p. 194.; N. Du Ham., 2. p. 42.

Synonymes. Liquidámbar árbor Pluk. Alm., 224. t. 42. f. 6., Cat. Car., 2. p. 65., Du Ham. Arb., 1. t139.; Styrax A'ceris folio Rai Hist., 1481.; Liquidambar résineux, Copalme de l'Amérique, Liquidambar Copal, Fr.; Fliesender Ambarbaum, Ger.

Engravings. Blackw., t. 485.; Pluk. Alm., t. 42. f. 6.; Cat. Car., t. 65.; Du Ham. Arb., 1. t. 139. ; Michx. Arb., 3. t. 4.; our fig. 1961.; and the plates of this tree in our last Volume.

Spec. Char., &c. Leaves palmately lobed, with the sinuses at the base of the veins villose. (Willd.) A deciduous tree, a native of North America, where it grows from 30 ft. to 50 ft. high, and flowers in March or April.

Ac

1961

Description, &c. The liquidambar generally forms a branching tree, having very much the appearance of a maple; and varying from 30 ft. to 50 ft. in height, with a trunk from 5 ft. or 6 ft., to 12 ft. or 15 ft. in circumference. cording to Michaux, in America, when grown among other trees, it has a perfectly straight trunk, nearly uniform in thickness, to the height of 30 ft. or 40 ft. before it begins to divide into branches. In Europe, it seldom exceeds 40 ft. in height. The bark of old trees is thick, and deeply furrowed; but on young trees it is comparatively smooth. On dry gravelly soil, it does not attain a greater height than 15 ft. or 20 ft.; and its secondary branches become covered with a dry flaky bark, the plates of which are attached at the edge, in

stead of the face, as is the case with the bark of most other trees. The bark of the young shoots is smooth, and of a yellowish green colour. The leaves are alternate, and on rather long petioles; they vary in size from 3 in. to 6 in. in diameter; and they are palmate; that is, they are divided into five deeply cut lobes, which are finely denticulated at the edge. When they first expand, a small tuft of reddish down is perceptible at the back of the middle rib of each leaf. "In warm weather, a viscous substance exudes from the leaves of those trees which have grown on dry ground; and, when bruised, they emit a sensible aromatic odour." (Michaux.) The male and female catkins, which appear about March or April, are on different branches of the same tree. The male are oval, and about 1 in. in length; the female ones are not conspicuous. "The fruit is globular, and bristling with points. When arrived at maturity, it is about 1 in. in diameter, and is suspended by a flexible pedicel, 1 in. or 2 in. long: the globes, which are green at first, and afterwards yellow, are composed of a great number of closely connected capsules. At the beginning of autumn, these capsules open, and give liberty to the seeds, which are small, blackish, oblong, compressed, and surmounted by a wing. Each capsule contains one or two seeds, united with a number of minute bodies, incapable of germination." (Id.) The leaves die off of an intensely deep purplish_red, more or less mixed with orange, and with some leaves entirely of that colour. They hang on the trees till the first frosts, when they drop off simultaneously. The rate of growth of this tree, in the climate of London, is from 8 ft. to 10 ft. in 10 years from the seed; and in 20 years it will attain the height of 25 ft. or 30 ft., and flower and ripen fruit. In good soil, and sheltered situations, the tree will attain the height of upwards of 60 ft., there being trees exceeding this size at Woburn Farm, Chertsey, and at Strathfieldsaye. These trees flower and produce fruit; but it has not been observed whether the seeds arrive at maturity. The longevity of the tree is probably not great, from its growing in marshy situations, and from the want of durability in its wood.

Geography. The liquidambar spreads through nearly two thirds of the United States, and through a great part of Mexico. In North America, its most northern point is between Philadelphia and Boston, lat. 43° 30′ N.; and it extends westward as far as the Illinois River. "In the middle, western, and southern states," says Michaux, "the sweet gum is sufficiently abundant to be numbered among the most common trees; and it is met with wherever the soil is fertile, cool, and exposed to temporary inundations. In the south, it grows, also, in the great swamps that border the rivers; and there, owing, doubtless, to the mildness of the winters, and the intense heat of the summers, it displays its amplest dimensions." The largest trees grow in moist rich soils; but, where the soil is dry and gravelly, the tree does not attain half its usual size. The largest tree observed by Michaux "was in a swamp five or six miles from Augusta, in Georgia. At 5 ft. from the ground, it was 15 ft. 7 in. in circumference; and its head was broad and spreading in proportion to the size of its trunk. It is found, in the American forests, in company with the chestnut white oak (Quercus Prìnus palustris), the willow oak (Q. Phéllos), the wahoo (U'lmus alàta), the black gum (Nýssa sylvática), the red maple (Acer rubrum), the red ash (Fraxinus tomentòsa), and the black ash (F. sambucifòlia)." (Michaux.) In Mexico, the liquidambar is generally found in moist valleys, where it attains an enormous size.

History. The first record we find of the liquidambar appears to be in a work written by Francis Hernandez, a Spanish naturalist and physician, who was sent out by Philip II. of Spain to examine and describe the natural productions of Spanish America. This work, which professed to be a history of the plants, animals, and minerals of Mexico, was originally published in that country, in Spanish, under the care, and with the name, of Father Ximenes; but it was afterwards republished, in Latin, at Rome, with the name of the real author attached, in 1651. Dr. Hernandez describes the liquidambar, or Xochiochotzo-Quahieliel, as he calls it, as being a large tree, and producing a fragrant gum, which, from its appearance, gave the idea of amber in a