REMARKABLE BUTTONBALLS 



R. \V. Shufeldt, Washington, U. C. 



IN THE March, 1917, issue of 

 American Forestry (p. 146), I invited 

 attention to the fact that the 



famiHar globular flower-balls of the 

 Sycamore or Buttonwood tree, ordi- 

 narily borne sinj^ly, are sometimes in 

 pairs, the peduncle of the lower ball 

 apparently being pressed into the side 

 of the bail above, leaving a depression 

 in the lines of the peduncles. An 

 exam])le of this condition, collected at 

 Washington, D. C, was given by a 

 photograph which I had made. 



The description would lead one to 

 believe that the condition was a rare 

 one, and such was my impression at 

 the time of writing the article, especially 

 when I found, in the last edition of 

 Gray's "New Manual of Botany" (190iS), 

 that not only was there no allusion to 

 this condition, but on the contrary it is 

 stated, in the description of these 

 fiower-heads : "fertile heads, solitary, 

 hanging on a long peduncle" (p. 454). 

 Since publishing the above exception, 

 I have examined a large number of 

 trees in and about Washington, and 

 I find that the condition is not nearly 

 so unusual as I first sui)poscd. The 

 publication of the fact, however, has 

 evidently been responsible for inducing 

 a great many other people, in all parts 

 of the country, to look into the matter, 

 and not a few letters have been written 

 to me on the subject. 



The single ball or flower-head is 

 undoubtedly the normal condition; and 

 it would be interesting to have any light 

 thrown on the origin of the muUi])le 

 ones, or if the latter ever occur on 

 typical wild trees. Henry W. Scatter- 

 good, of Philadelphia, writes in regard 

 to this tree: "I have a large specimen 

 on the lawn of my home in Germantown, 

 and on looking over the button l)alls 

 lying on the ground, I found a number 

 of the double, variety which you describe 

 as aljnormal, also triple ones. There 

 are a number of both still on the tree. 

 . . . Am also mailing a couple of 

 the double and one tri])le specimen 

 under separate cover." In the trii)le 



310 



specimen I found the peduncles to the 

 balls all in line, as in my figure given in 

 American Forestry. Personally, T have 

 never seen the triple balls in nature or 

 on other trees, and I was about to 

 photograph the specimen, when Charles 

 E. Mather, of Philadelphia, iuA'ited mv 

 attention to the fact (April 1, 1917) 

 that they also occurred on the 

 sycamores on his "Meadow Farm" 

 at BrandN'Avine. This correspondent 

 topped the record by proving that the 

 cluster sometimes contained as many 

 as four balls, with the four peduncles 

 all in line. Mr. Mather has some 

 twenty sycamores on his place, all of 

 which he carefully examined with the 

 result of finding only this single example 

 of four balls strimg together. He 

 states positively that "the native trees 

 only have one ball." He sent me the 

 four-ball specimen; and, while it had 

 been somewhat damaged in the mails — 

 the balls being about to go to pieces — I 

 made a photograph of it; this is here 

 reproduced to illustrate the condition. 

 The superior half of the lowermost 

 ball had become detached and broken up. 



Mr. Mather has been so good as to 

 make photographs of two of his syca- 

 more trees, showing examples of three 

 balls in a cluster or string, and thes? 

 pictures I have in my possession. The 

 Morris Nursery Co., of West Chester, 

 Pa., under date of April 2, 1917, wrote 

 Mr. Mather to the effect that "we sent 

 you some years back the Oriental 

 Buttonwood, the only kind we grow, 

 as it is superior to the American 

 Buttonwood." 



This latter occurs, according to the 

 botanies, pretty generally throughout 

 the eastern half of the United States, 

 Init not west of eastern Kansas, while 

 th,' range and habitat of the Oriental 

 Buttonwood or Sycamore is still un- 

 IsMKjwn to me. From the wide interest 

 taken in the matter, it would appear 

 to be worthy of further investigation, 

 especially along the line of specific 

 variation, not only of the flowers but 

 of the trees as well. 



