VII. THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. 233 



'43 and '44. The shoots seemed to have been nipped as by a 

 frost. The large trees were particularly affected, but by no 

 means exclusively. For some weeks, in each of these springs, 

 many of the trees seemed to have been killed. In the course of 

 the summers, most of them have pushed forth leaves on the 

 sides of the branches, and have seemed partially recovering. 

 The extremities of the branches, on almost all the buttonwoods, 

 are dead, and many of the trees are now, in the fall of 1845, 

 completely so. 



This malady has been attributed to various causes. By most 

 persons, it is considered the effect of frost. Others ascribe it to 

 the action of some insect or worm ; and others believe it to be 

 some unaccountable disease. 



It seems to me most probable that it is owing to the tree's not 

 maturing its wood during the previous summer, so that it is 

 incapable of resisting the cold of winter. The present season, 

 of 1845, has been a remarkably warm one, and this year, if 

 ever, the buttonwood must have had time to mature its wood. 

 If the wood formed during the present season should not be 

 affected by the cold of the spring of 1846, some confirmation 

 will be given to this conjecture. 



Very little use in the arts is made of the wood of the plane 

 tree. It is very perishable when exposed to the weather ; it is 

 said to warp considerably, and in every valuable property is 

 thought to be surpassed by other kinds of timber equally abund- 

 ant and accessible. For some purposes of ornament, however, it 

 would seem to present claims to attention. The roots, accord- 

 ing to Michaux, have a beautifully red color, when taken from 

 the earth, but lose it on exposure to the light. Means might 

 doubtless be found to make this color permanent. The wood of 

 the stem is hard, of a firm and close texture, of an agreeable, 

 faint red color, and beautifully varied by close lines of silver 

 grain. There is every reason to believe that it is as valuable 

 as that of the oriental plane, and that the great excellence and 

 variety of our timber trees have alone prevented the necessity 

 of its use. 



S. W. Pomeroy, Esq., in an article in the fifth volume of the 

 New England Farmer, urges the cultivation of the buttonwood. 

 31 



