BOTANY. 



33 



Like most of the evergreen oaks, Q. agrifolia is rather a southern tree. Though found in 

 all parts of the Sacramento valley, it scarcely extends further northward than Fort Reading, 

 while it ranges southward into Mexico. 



The wood is hard and brittle, a.d, from the small size of the tree, is of little value for 

 building purposes. 



Platanus racemosa. (Plate II.) The Mexican sycamore. 



P. racemosa, Nutt. Sylva. I, p. 47, t. 15. 



P. racemosa, Aud. Birds Amer. t. 362. 



P. Mexicana, Moric. PI. Nov. on. rar. d' Amer. t. 26. 



Fig. 10. 

 Fig. 10. Leaf and fruit of P. racemosa, one-half natural size. 



The Mexican sycamore exhibits a striking general resemblance to P. occidentalis of the eastern 

 States, and by a casual observer would be considered the same. It grows along river banks in 

 the same way, and, like P. occidentalis, often divides into several trunks — branches they can 

 hardly be called — which diverge widely and irregularly, giving to the tree a straggling and 

 irregular growth. The general effect of the foliage is similar, and the trunk is covered with a 

 white exfoliating bark. On closer examination, however, it will be seen that the resemblance 

 to the eastern tree is only general, and the points of difference are so numerous and appreciable 

 that the two species which they constitute need never be confounded. 



The port, both in form and dimensions, of the sycamore of California is so like that of the 

 east as to afford no diagnostic characters. 



Along the rivers its growth is usually open and unsymmetrical, as has been mentioned ; but 

 5 Z 



