Liquidambar

Liquidambar, a genus—the only genus—of the order Altingiaceæ. They are tall trees, remarkable for their fragrant balsamic products. L. styraciflua, the American Liquidambar, or Sweet Gum tree, is a beautiful tree with palmate leaves, a native of Mexico and the United States. It grows well in the milder parts of Britain. Its wood is of a hard texture and fine grain, and makes good furniture. From cracks or incisions in the bark a transparent, yellowish balsamic fluid exudes, called Liquid Liquidambar, Oil of Liquidambar, American Storax, Copalm Balsam, and sometimes, but erroneously, White Balsam of Peru. It gradually becomes concrete and darker coloured. Its properties are similar to those of storax. That of commerce is mostly brought from Mexico and New Orleans.—L. orientale, a smaller tree with palmate leaves, is a native of the Levant and of more eastern regions, and yields abundantly a balsamic fluid, which has been supposed to be the Liquid Storax imported from the Levant; but on this point there is a diversity of opinion.