110 TBEES OP NEW ENGLAND. 



PLATANACEiE. 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 Hamp- 

 shire, Merrimac valley towards the coast ; along the Con- 

 necticut 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 magnifi- 

 cent, 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 hori- 

 zontal, 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 flak- 

 ing off in broad, thin, brittle scales, exposing the green or buff 

 inner bark, which becomes nearly white on exposure ; branch- 

 lets 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, 



