VII. THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. 229 



little toughness, and usually, on the stem and larger branches, 

 flakes off in broad, irregular scales, leaving portions of the inner 

 layers, of a light yellowish color, exposed. These bright patches, 

 seen among the green leaves, or on the uniform gray of the stem, 

 produce often a striking effect. Sometimes the upper part of 

 the trunk is seen quite smooth, but of different colors, as there 

 is no regularity in the period or extent of the exfoliation of the 

 bark. Sometimes the trunk is uniform and rough, with unequal 

 roundish scales, while the limbs are smooth and mottled. 



" No tree," says Gilpin,* "forms a more pleasing shade than 

 the occidental plane. It is full leafed, 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 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, discovers 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. 



" 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 over- 

 shadow 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 magnifi- 

 cent of trees." 



The recent shoots are overspread with a copious grayish 

 down, which they lose, in the course of the first season, except 

 about the nodes or joints, and become of a grayish purple, or 

 chestnut brown. The next year they are smooth and of a green- 

 ish gray, thickly scattered with minute gray dots. The green 

 tinge gradually fades, and they assume a uniform light gray or 

 yellowish color, almost white, as seen from a distance. The 



* Forest Scenery, I, 109—10. 



