VII. THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. 227 



trees are considered as belonging to the Bread Fruit Family, 

 with which they have many points of resemblance. 



The planes are natives of the Levant, Barbary, and North 

 America. The bark has someastringency, the leaves have been 

 used in fomentations, and were formerly considered an antidote 

 to the bite of serpents. 



THE PLANE TREE. PLATANUS. L. 



This is a genus, the only one of the family, of lofty trees, 

 with broad, spreading branches, and large leaves, forming a 

 dense foliage. The young shoots, leaves, and stipules are thick- 

 ly covered with fine down, which, as they expand, falls off, and 

 floating in the atmosphere, is liable to be inhaled by persons in 

 their vicinity. This produces a disagreeable cough, sometimes 

 of considerable duration ; and the circumstance forms a strong 

 objection to planting these trees in the neighborhood of dwelling- 

 houses. 



Two species, the Occidental Plane, and the Californian, are 

 found within the territory of the United States, a third, the 

 Oriental, is generally diffused on the eastern continent, and two 

 others, possibly varieties of this, occur in the extreme east. The 

 only one native to Massachusetts is 



The Buttonwood Tree. Platanus occldenlalis. L. 



Figured in Michaux, Sylva, II, Plate 63 ; in Catesby's Carolina, Plate 56. 

 The tree is represented, as seen in winter, in Loudon, Arb., VIII, Plate 289. 

 The leaves are figured, together with the beautiful Plane Tree Moth, whose 

 caterpillar lives on them, by Abbott, II, Plate 55 ; and by Audubon, with the 

 Summer Duck ; Birds of America, III, Plate 206. 



At a place called Vaucluse, some miles from Newport, on the 

 island of Rhode Island, on an estate formerly belonging to Samuel 

 Elam, a man of taste and of humanity, there was standing, in 

 September, 1839, on the side of a small stream, a buttonwood 

 tree, which measured atone foot from the surface of the ground, 

 twenty-four feet four inches. The thickness of the tree and the 

 declivity of the bank, made the ground two feet and a half 

 higher on one side than on the other, so that this measure was 



