yraciflua.]

1. Winter buds.
2. Flowering branch.
3. Sterile flower.
4. Fertile flower.
5. Fruiting branch.

PLATANACEAE. PLANE-TREE FAMILY.

=Platanus occidentalis, L.=

BUTTONWOOD. SYCAMORE. BUTTONBALL. PLANE TREE.

=Habitat and Range.=--Near streams, river bottoms, and low, damp woods.

Ontario.

Maine,--apparently restricted to York county; New Hampshire,--Merrimac
valley towards the coast; along the Connecticut as far as Walpole;
Vermont,--scattering along the river shores, quite abundant along the
Hoosac in Pownal (Eggleston); Massachusetts,--occasional; Rhode Island
and Connecticut,--rather common.

South to Florida; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.

=Habit.=--A tree of the first magnitude, 50-100 feet and upwards in
height, with a diameter of 3-8 feet; reaching in the rich alluvium of
the Ohio and Mississippi valleys a maximum of 125 feet in height and a
diameter of 20 feet; the largest tree of the New England forest,
conspicuous by its great height, massive trunk and branches, and by its
magnificent, wide-spreading, dome-shaped or pyramidal, open head. The
sunlight, streaming through the large-leafed, rusty foliage, reveals the
curiously mottled patchwork bark; and the long-stemmed, globular fruit
swings to every breeze till spring comes again.

The lower branches are often very long and almost horizontal, and the
branchlets frequently have a tufted, broom-like appearance, due probably
to the action of a fungous disease on the young growth.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk and large branches dark greenish-gray, sometimes
rough and closely adherent, but usually flaking off in broad, thin,
brittle scales, exposing the green or buff inner bark, which becomes
nearly white on exposure; branchlets light brown, sometimes ridgy
towards the ends, marked with numerous inconspicuous dots.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds short, ovate, obtuse, enclosed in the
swollen base of a petiole, and, after the fall of the leaf, encircled
by the leaf-scar. Leaves simple, alternate, 5-6 inches long, 7-10 wide,
pubescent on both sides when young, at maturity light rusty-green above,
light green beneath, finally smooth, turning yellow in autumn,
coriaceous; outline reniform; margin coarse-toothed or sinuate-lobed,
the short lobes ending in a sharp point; base heart-shaped to nearly
truncate; leafstalk 1-2 inches long, swollen at the base; stipules
sheathing, often united, forming a sort