CHAPTER NINE 



THE SYCAMORE 



Beautiful even though stripped and bare, 

 Are the trees that are planted everywhere, 

 Winter's best beauty belongs to them, 

 To their giant trunks and feathery stem, 

 And they bravely stand in the silent wood 

 Like a patient life that is nobly good. 



MARIANNE FARMINGHAM 



THE sycamore is also called buttonwood and plane 

 tree. It can be distinguished from other large trees 

 by the dappled whiteness of the bark. The trunk is 

 blotched and streaked, for the outer bark comes off in 

 large, thin plates, exposing the newer bark within, 

 which is smooth and greenish or whitish. On this 

 account the tree may be recognized at a great distance. 

 Sycamore trees have long trunks, and in the eastern 

 half of the United States they grow larger than any other 

 hardwood trees. At Washington, Indiana, stands a 

 tree of this kind, with a trunk circumference of 42 feet. 

 In Kentucky there was a sycamore with a hollow base 

 that a family, in which were several children, used for a 

 home. The sycamore thrives best in moist soil and is 

 common along streams. 



The oriental plane tree is a near relative of the syca- 

 more and very similar to it. It is oiie of the very 

 best trees to plant along city streets. It is more sym- 

 metrical than the native tree, grows fast, and is not 

 often seriously infested by insects. 



Leaves and fruit. The leaves of the sycamore are 

 larger and less deeply lobed than maple leaves. Their 

 width is greater than their length. The one-seeded 



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