SYCAMORE 149 



central trunk, and lessen regularly in size towards the 

 top, so that we get a rather formal round-headed mass 

 of foliage. The leaves are of considerable size and very 

 numerous, so that one can quite understand its shade-giving 

 property being one of the first things noted. The wood 

 is close-grained and yet easy to work, and it was in our 

 forefathers' days much used for the making of spoons, 

 plates, bowls and trenchers, before Birmingham and Burslem 

 between them supplanted wood by metal or by earthenware. 

 If the trunk be punctured as the tree is coming into leaf 

 an abundant supply of sap may be procured that can be 

 converted into sugar or wine. Thirty-six quarts of this 

 saccharine juice have been drawn from one tree within 

 a week. 



The leaves of the sycamore are dark green on their 

 upper surface and whitish beneath. As the leaves are 

 large and on long footstalks, they move readily to the wind, 

 and a sudden gust very curiously reveals these light under- 

 surfaces. Their form is sufficiently indicated in our illus- 

 tration. One old writer, we see, calls them "great broad 

 and cornered leaves much like to those of the Vine." 

 They grow in pairs, it will be noted, a very unusual 

 arrangement amongst our British trees, and the sharp 

 decision of the lines of the veining is also a very marked 

 feature. The young leaves are folded up fan-wise in the 

 buds, and when these latter once yield to the genial 

 influence of Spring the leaves expand with great rapidity, 

 and the tree is very quickly a mass of foliage. The leaves 

 are sometimes covered with little red lumps, the habitation 

 of a grub, and towards the Autumn are a good deal spotted 

 and blotched with irregularly shaped patches of purplish- 



