CHAP. CVII. PLATANA^CEiE. PLA'TANUS. 2045 



from the ground, or about J ft. 10 in. in diameter; which gives nine lines and 

 a half, or more than three quarters of an inch, of increase annually. 



Geography. The American plane is found over an immense tract of land 

 in North America, comprising the Atlantic and western states, and extending 

 beyond the Mississippi. " The nature of the button-wood," says Michaux, 

 " confines it to moist and cool grounds, where the soil is loose, deep, and fertile ; 

 the luxuriance of its vegetation depending on a combination of these circum- 

 stances. It is never found upon dry lands of an irregular surface, among 

 white and red oaks and walnuts ; it is also more rare in the mountainous tract 

 of the Alleghanies than in the flat country. It is remarked, in that part of 

 Virginia which lies upon the road from Baltimore to Petersburg, that, though 

 the button-wood is abundant in the swamps, its growth is stunted j and that its 

 trunk does not, in general, exceed 8 in. or 10 in. in diameter. Farther south, in 

 the lower parts of the Carolinas and of Georgia, it is not abundant even on the 

 sides of the rivers ; and is not seen in the branch swamps, already mentioned, 

 which intersect the pine barrens, and which are principally covered with the 

 small magnolia (Magnolia glauca), the red bay (Laurus caroliniensis), the 

 loblolly bay (Gordonza Lasianthus), the red maple (yi^cer rubrum), &c. The 

 reason that the button-wood is not found in these small marshes is, perhaps, 

 that the layer of vegetable mould, which is black and always miry, is not suf- 

 ficiently thick and substantial to support its growth ; and that the heat, in this 

 part of the southern states, is excessive. The button-wood is in no part of 

 North America more abundant and more vigorous than along the great rivers 

 of Pennsylvania and of Virginia ; though in the more fertile valleys of the 

 west its vegetation is, perhaps, still more luxuriant ; especially on the banks 

 of the Ohio, and of the rivers which empty into it. The bottoms which are 

 watered by these rivers are covered with dark forests, composed of trees of 

 an extraordinary size. The soil is very deep, loose, of a brown colour, and 

 unctuous to the touch : it appears to have been formed by the slime deposited 

 in the course of ages, at the annual overflowing of the rivers. The leaves, 

 which every autumn form a thick layer upon the surface, and the old trees, 

 that fall by the weight of years, and crumble into vegetable mould, give to 

 this soil, already so fertile, a degree of fecundity which is without example in 

 Europe, and which is manifested by prodigies of vegetation. The margin of 

 the great rivers of the West is occupied by the willow, after which comes the 

 white maple (^^cer eriocarpum), and next the button-wood; but this arrange- 

 ment is not uniformly observed ; and the maple alone, or, as it more fre- 

 quently happens, mingled with the button-wood, sometimes grows upon the 

 brink. Among the trees which compose these forests, the three species men- 

 tioned are least liable to injury from the continued presence of water ; and, by 

 their position, they are exposed to have their bases every year inundated by 

 the swelling of the rivers. In these situations, the button-wood is constantly 

 found to be the loftiest and largest tree of the United States." (^Nor-th Atner. 

 Syl.,'\i. p. 38.) 



History. In the Atlantic states, this tree is commonly known by the name 

 of button-wood ; and sometimes, in Virginia, by that of water beech. On the 

 banks of the Ohio, and in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, it is most 

 frequently called sycamore, and by some persons plane, tree. The French of 

 Canada and of Upper Louisiana give it the name of the cotton tree. The 

 first of these denominations appears to be the most widely diffused, and, in 

 fact, to be that by which the tree is most generally known in America. The 

 name cotton tree alludes to the thick down which covers the under surface 

 of the leaves when they first expand, and which becomes gradually detached 

 from them in the course of the summer. In some parts of the United States, 

 where the tree is very abundant, the inhabitants, according to Michaux, regard 

 it with dread, as they think this down, detached and floating in the air, has a 

 tendency to produce irritation of the lungs, and, finally, consumption. The 

 American plane was one of the trees discovered and figured by Catesby in 

 his Natural History of Carolina (i. t. 56.) ; and it was introduced about 1630, 



