LIQUID

AMBER

See also:

• LIQUID AMBER LIQUIDAMBAR

LIQUIDAMBAR  or SWEET Gum, a product of Liquidambar styraciflua (order Hamamelideae), a deciduous tree of from 8o to 140 ft. high, with a straight trunk 4 or 5 ft. in diameter, a native of the United States, Mexico and Central America . It bears palmately-lobed leaves, somewhat resembling those of the maple, but larger . The male and female inflorescences are on different branches of the same tree, the globular heads of fruit resembling those of the plane . This species is nearly allied to L. orientalis, a native of a very restricted portion of the south-west coast of Asia Minor, where it forms forests . The earliest record of the tree appears to be in a Spanish work by F . Hernandez, published in 1651, in which he describes it as a large tree producing a fragrant gum resembling liquid amber, whence the name (Nov . Plant., &c., p.56) . In Ray's Historia Planlarum (1686) it is called Styrax liquida . It was introduced into Europe in 1681 by John Banister, the missionary collector sent out by Bishop Compton, who planted it in the palace gardens at Fulham . The wood is very compact and fine-grained—the heart-wood being reddish, and, when cut into planks, marked transversely with blackish belts . It is employed for veneering in America . Being readily dyed black, it is sometimes used instead of ebony for picture frames, balusters, &c.; but it is too liable to decay for out-door work .

The gum

resin yielded by this tree has no special medicinal virtues, being inferior in therapeutic properties to many others of its class . Mixed with tobacco, the gum was used for smoking at the court of the Mexican emperors (Humboldt iv . 1o) . It has long been used in France as a perfume for gloves, &c . It is mainly produced in Mexico, little being obtained from trees growing in higher latitudes of North America, or in England .