50 THE SYCAMORE. 



and the snow is still on the ground. A tree of ordi- 

 nary size yields from fifteen to thirty gallons of sap, from 

 which are made from two to four pounds of sugar. 

 The tree is not at all injured by the operation, but con- 

 tinues to nourish, after having been annually tapped for 

 forty years without intermission. The produce is consumed 

 principally in the neighbourhood of the place where it is 

 manufactured, the sugar from the cane being preferred 

 whenever it can be readily procured. 



Our Sycamore is not sufficiently productive of sugar 

 to be ever employed in this way, even if the manufacture 

 were legalized ; but it is by no means a worthless tree. Its 

 wood was much used for making platters before earthenware 

 plates were generally introduced, and in rural districts is 

 still applied to the same purpose. When the tree is young 

 the wood is white, but acquires a yellow or brown hue as 

 it increases in age. It is close-grained, but not hard, and 

 does not readily warp, and, being easily worked either by 

 the hand or lathe, was formerly held in high estimation 

 for the purpose above mentioned. It is sought by the 

 joiner and cabinet-maker, and it is also used for making 

 musical instruments and cider-screws. It forms also a 

 very valuable fuel, burning slowly and giving out a great 

 deal of heat. Not only on account of its uses in the arts 

 and manufactures, and its dense foliage in summer, was its 

 growth encouraged, but it was planted in the vicinity of 

 houses, from the supposition that it was the Sycamore of 

 Scripture ; this however is not the case, the tree into which 

 Zacchseus climbed to see our Saviour pass on His way to 

 Jerusalem being the Ficus Sycomorus. However, as the 

 error once generally prevailed, both that tree and our 

 tree bearing the same name have been selected by the 

 inventors of the language of flowers to indicate curiosity. 



Dr. Shaw, speaking of the Sycamore of the East, says, 

 "The mummy-chests, and whatever figures and instruments 

 of wood are found in the catacombs, are all of them of 

 Sycamore, which, though spongy and porous to appearance, 



