MULTIPLE BUTTON-BALLS 



R. \V. Shufhldt, Washington, D C 



OS PAGE 146 of the March, 1917, 

 issue of American Forestry, I pub- 

 lished a brief article on the 

 "Sycamore or Buttonwood Tree 

 Flower." It was illustrated by a cut 

 showinj^ that, in certain instances, there 

 rray be a short-peduncled flower-head 

 or ball sprinj^inji; from one of the twiji;s 

 of the tree, with another hanj^inj^ below 

 this, its peduncle being somewhat lon<^er 

 and apparently pressed into the upi)er 

 ball at its ])roxi nal end. At the time 

 this was jxiblished, I considered the 

 condition rare, and so stated in my 

 article. It caused many people to look 

 up into the sycamores or jjlane trees, 

 to ascertain if other specimens could 

 be obtained. These were not long in 

 coming. A specimen was sent me that 

 had four balls to a string, the latter 

 being formed by the peduncles in a 

 straight line, the flower-heads or balls 

 averaging about an inch apart. This 

 specimen I published, with a brief 

 account in the Journal of Heredity 

 (July. 1917, p. 310), and this article 

 brought me a good many more letters 

 from corres|Jondents who had observed 

 similar strings of these flower-heads. 



Then there was a lull in the corre- 

 spondence which was raj^idly showing me 

 up as being a jx^rson who but rarely 

 gazed heavenward — this at least being 

 the case when I was either under or in 

 the neighborhood of a plane tree. 

 However this may be, the charge was 

 to be brought h(jme with still greater 

 emphasis a little later on — indeed, it 

 was not long on the way. The next 

 surprise along this line of observation 

 was handed me by Prof. Rali)h L. 

 Johnson, f)f(iirard College, Philadelphia. 

 During Sejjtember, 1917, Professor John- 

 son sent down to me a box of bullon- 

 balls, whereon the united jK-dundes 

 exhibited all the way from three to 

 seoen to a string. These balls were 

 very large, dark colored, and firm, and 

 they certainly presented a most re- 

 markable sight. Many of them were 



550 



over an inch in diameter; in some cases 

 they were side by side on the common 

 string, and in one or two instances 

 there were three balls with peduncles 

 so short that the group were mutually 

 tangent to each other. I made a num- 

 ber of negatives of these interesting 

 specimens, one of which is reproduced 

 here to illustrate the present article. 

 Professor Johnson has kindly given 

 me permission to publish his two very 

 interesting letters on this subject, they 

 being dated Sejitember 17, 1917, and 

 September 25, 1917, respectively; they 

 are reproduced in this order below. 



A TANDEM OF SJEVEV 



Girard Collep;e, 

 Philadelphia, Pa., 

 Sept. 17, 1917. 

 Dr. R. W. SnuFELDT, 



Washington, D. C. 

 Sir; 



After reading your article in tlie July JovK- 

 NAL OF Hehediiy, Vol. xviii, Page M(), 1 

 examined the sycamore trees in Delaware Co., 

 Pa., and find tandems of four, five, si.x and one 

 of seven button-balls. 



Under separate '-over I have sent you a 

 tandem of four and of six respectively on tlio 

 same stem within three inches. 



There is hanging in my study a spray witli 

 a peduncle with six balls, one of three, and two 

 of four balls, all within seven inches upon the 

 same branch. I have also a pcduticlc with 

 seven button-balls; this I gathered from a six- 

 foot stej) ladder. On another brancli wilhin 

 two inches there is a tandem of six and an- 

 other of four balls. 1 have gath.ered three 

 peduncles of five balls. 



The tree is about eight inches in diameter 

 and forty feet high. -It perhaps came from the 

 West Chester Nursery. It is growing Ijeside 

 a much used road, in the center of a suburb 

 of West Philadeljihia. There are wonderful 

 clusters of button-!)alls on this tree, often a 

 .score upon a branch no thiclccr than a small 

 pencil. 



Kindly advise if you wisli .my fnrtlier facts 

 or .service. 1 have not examinixl the tree 

 minutely — only from a six-foot ladder. There 

 may be larger tandems than seven. 

 Yours most truly, 



(Signed; Ram'H L. Joii.nso.v. 



