PITTSFIELT) PLATTSBTTRG. 



'213 



State militia was called out ami suppressed the riot. 

 Allegheny county was subsequent!; held responsible 

 for the damage done to property, and an attempt to 

 transfer the burden to the State was defeated. 



PITTSFIELD, a city of Massachusetts, shire-town 

 of Berkshire county, is on a beautiful plateau, 1200 ft. 

 above the sea. It is on the Boston and Albany and 

 two other railroads. There are six lakes around it 

 which give rise to the Housatonic River. The city has 

 a marble court-house, 3 banks, several hotels, an athe- 

 naeum with free library, 13 churches, some of which 

 are notable for architecture, a high-school, 30 public 

 schools, a young ladies' school, 2 weekly newspapers, 

 and 2 parks. The lakes furnish water-power which is 

 used in the manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, 

 knit good*, silk, and tacks. The site of Pittsfield was 

 granted to Boston in 1735, and was hence known as 

 ' ' Boston Plantation ' ' until 1 761, when it was incorpor- 

 ated under its present name. Its population in 1880 

 was 13,364. 



PITTSTON, a borough of Luzerne co., Pa., is on 

 the E. bank of the Susquehanna River, 9 miles above 

 Wilkesbarre, and in the centre of the Wyoming coal- 

 region. It is on the Lehigh Valley, the Ene and 

 Wyoming Valley, and the Delaware, Lackawanna, and 

 Western Railroads. The last-named road crosses the 

 Susquehanna River here by a bridge, and there are 

 two other bridges connecting the borough with West 

 Pittston, a village of nearly 4000 inhabitants, which is 

 chiefly used as a place of residence. Pittston itself is 

 a mining town, though there are also several manufac- 

 turing industries, including 3 knitting-mills, a silk-mill, 

 and foundries producing stoves, car-wheels, engines, 

 and iron-roofing. It has 3 hotels, a national bank, and 

 2 other banks. 1 weekly and 2 daily newspapers, 18 

 churches, and 8 graded schools. It has a park and 

 water-works, and is lighted with both gas and electric 

 light. The assessed valuation of its property is 

 1725,922, but the actual value is over $1,000,000. 

 The public debt is $35,000, and the yearly expenses 

 are $1 1,000. The first house on the site was built by 

 Zebulon Marcy in 1770. The borough was incorpo- 

 rated in l.vVJ. The population is largely of foreign 

 birth and in 1SSO amounted to 7472. 



PLAINFIKU), a city of New Jersey, in Union co., 

 is on Green Brook. J4 miles W. 8. W. of New York 

 city, by the N. .1. Central Railroad. It has 2 national 

 banks, 14 churches, good public and private schools, 

 and 2 weekly newspapers. The manufactures are of 

 hats, clothing, and machinery. Plainfield was laid out 

 in 17:15 anJ made a city in 1869. It has become a 

 favorite place of residence for persons doing business 

 in New York. Its population in 1880 was 8125. 



PLANK, a tree of the genus Platanus, order_ Pla- 

 tanacfae, well known under the common names of but- 

 tonwood and sycamore, the latter a misnomer, as the 

 real sycamore is a very different tree. The order con- 

 tains but one genus, Plattmut, and three species, two 

 of which are natives of the United States. It is classed 

 by some writers with the bread-fruit family, which it 

 resembles in many particulars. The planes are distin- 

 guished by their broad leaves, globular inflorescence 

 and fruit, and watery juice. The leaves are 5 to 6 

 inches long, and 7 to 8 broad, with 5 lobes and long 

 foot-stalks. The leaf-buds end in the leaf-stalk, and 

 by their expansion break the articulation of the pre- 

 vious leaves, so that the plant is necessarily deciduous. 

 The young shouts, leaves, and stipules are thickly 

 mviTcd with a fine down, which falls off as they ex- 

 pand and floats in the air. When breathed in it is apt 

 to produce a disagreeable and persistent cough, for 

 which reason it is objectionable to plant these trees too 

 near to dwellings. The female catkin of the plane is 

 a globular ball, less than an inch in diameter, borne on 

 a flexible,, downy footstock from 2 to 5 inelie.s long. 

 The flowers are so small as to be imperceptible. The 

 male catkins are globes of about } inch in diameter, 

 Win: on slender, thread-like stalks of an inch or two 



in length. The stamens are very numerous, eaeli of 

 two cells opening at the sides and tilled with white pol- 

 len. They are surmounted by brownish-green glandu- 

 lar disks which form the surface of the ball. The 

 ripened seeds are small and light, yet have the struc- 

 ture of nuts. They remain on the tree until the eji- 

 suing spring, when they are dispersed by the bristly 

 down attached to them. A marked feature of the 

 planes is the character of their bark, which is deficient 

 in toughness and extensibility, while its layers have little 

 mutual adhesion. In consequence the outer layers 

 are apt to crack and scale off in large irregular patches, 

 revealing the whitish inner bark. This peculiarity 

 gives the plane a different appearance from any other 

 tree. The planes are large, spreading trees, and have 

 long been highly ^esteemed as shade-trees. 



The Oriental plane (Platamu orientalis), a native of 

 the Levant, is a tree of great size, growing to the 

 height of 80 feet and sometimes higher, and occa- 

 sionally of immense diameter, while its thickly 

 leafed branches spread widely from the trunk. It 

 was a favorite tree in ancient times, the Romans 

 particularly valuing it as a shade-tree. ' It is still much 

 esteemed in the East, and is a great favorite in Persia. 

 Its wood, which has a beautiful surface, and takes a bril- 

 liant polish; is much used in carpentry, joining, cabinet- 

 making, and even in ship-building. 



The occidental plane (P. ocadtntalfs), the buttonwood 

 of the eastern United States, is the largest and loftiest of 

 American deciduous trees. ^ It has a massive column 

 or trunk, tapering rapidly u> some distance from the 

 ground, and then ascending with a very slight taper. 

 Specimens have been measured on the banks of our 

 western rivers of from 40 to 50 feet diameter and 100 

 feet high, but such dimensions as these are very seldom 

 attained. The tree is a very rapid grower, especially 

 near water, and sends its lower limbs out hori- 

 zontally, while the density of its foliage makes it an 

 excellent shade-tree. The leaves are less palmated 

 than those of the oriental plane, are large in size and 

 seldom injured by insects, while they cluster so thickly 

 as to throw a very dense shade. The wood is of little use 

 in the arts, being perishable if exposed to the weather, 

 and liable to warp, but it makes good fuel when grown 

 on dry soil. The bark of the plane has some astrin- 

 gency, and the leaves have been used in fomentations. 

 They were formerly considered an antidote to the pojson 

 of serpents. The American plane has a wide distribu- 

 tion, extending from the Atlantic to the States west of 

 the Mississippi and as far north as Montreal, where it 

 is called the cotton tree. 



A third species occurs on the Pacific coast, the Cali- 

 fornia plane (P. racemosus). It is a well-distinguished 

 species, its leaves being deeply cleft, and very downy 

 when young, while their under surface continues covered 

 with a white woolly down, that gives them the feeling 

 of thick woollen cloth. The male catkins are smaller 

 than peas. The female catkins grow in racemes with 

 from 3 to 5 pendent balls, the styles being remark- 

 ably long and persistent on the ripe balls. The tree 

 has a very unusual appearance with its long pendular 

 racemes, nine inches long, each with from 3 to 5 balls. 

 The wood is superior to that of P. oeculentalis. 



(c. M.) 



PLATTSBURG, a city of New York, seat of Clinton 

 co., is on the W. shore of Lake Champlain at the 

 mouth of the Saranac River, and on the railroad of 

 the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 63 miles S. 

 of Montreal. Two fine iron bridges cross the river. 

 The Chateaugay and the Au Sable Railroads lead into 

 the Adirondack region. In the summer a steamboat 

 runs daily to Fort Ticonderoga, 70 miles south, and 

 others run to Burlington, Vt., and various points ot 

 interest on the lake. Plattsburg has 5 hotels. 4 national 

 banks, 1 daily and 4 weekly newspapers, 7 churches, a 

 high-school, and six other schools. Its industries com- 

 prise an iron-furnace, machine-shops, sewing-machine- 

 works, wagon-factory, and planing-mills. It has water- 



