SYDENHAM 



5667 



SYDNEY 



the lower trunk its bark is a dark reddish-brown 

 and on the limbs an olive-green. The bark on 

 the branches breaks off in small scales, expos- 

 ing an inner bark of light color and giving an 

 effect expressed in the familiar phrase "hoary 

 antlered sycamore." 



The broad leaves, which furnish delightful 

 shade, are yellow-green with a pale lining, and 

 have irregularly-cut margins and prominent 

 veins. There are two kinds of flowers, those 

 bearing stamens and those bearing pistils. The 

 former are a deep red and the latter a pale 

 green with a tinge of red. They open in May, 

 when the leaves unfold. The fruit of the syca- 

 more is a dry seed ball, which hangs from a 

 flexible stem. Other names for this tree are 

 buttonwood and American plane tree. 



SYDENHAM, sid'enam, CHARLES EDWARD 

 POULETT THOMSON, First Baron (1799-1841), a 

 British statesman and colonial administrator, 

 Governor-General of Canada from 1839 to 1841. 

 After a distinguished career in England he was 

 sent to Canada to bring about the legislative 

 union of Upper and Lower Canada, a duty 

 which he fulfilled with very general satisfaction. 

 As a reward, in 1840 he was created Baron Syd- 

 enham of Kent and Toronto, but lived only a 

 year to enjoy this new honop, for he died at 

 Kingston, Ont., in September, 1841, as the re- 

 sult .of an accident. 



Sydenham, or Poulett Thomson as he was 

 better known, was born at Wimbledon, Surrey, 

 England. From 1815 to 1817, and again from 

 1821 to 1823, he was in Petrograd on business 

 for his father, a London merchant, and in 1823 

 he became associated with the London office. 

 Before long, however, his Liberal connections 

 drew him into politics. In 1826 he was elected 

 to the House of Commons, in 1830 he entered 

 Earl Grey's Cabinet as Vice-President of the 

 Board of Trade, and in 1834 became President. 

 During these years he was conspicuous as a re- 

 former along economic lines; tariff laws tend- 

 ing toward free trade, banking and factory leg- 

 islation, the abolition of usury laws, and com- 

 mercial treaties with foreign countries were 

 some of the many subjects which showed the 

 marks of his work. Ill health compelled his 

 resignation from Parliament in 1839. His sud- 

 den death came before he had developed his 

 powers to the full, but not before he had made 

 a place for himself in history. 



SYDNEY, next to Halifax the second in- 

 corporated city and one of the larger com- 

 munities in Nova Scotia. It is situated on the 

 northeast coast of Cape Breton Island, and is 



the terminus of the Sydney & Louisburg Rail- 

 way and of the eastern division of the Inter- 

 colonial Railway. An electric line runs to Glace 

 Bay and Dominion, and there is regular steam- 

 ship connection with all important Canadian 

 Atlantic ports. North Sydney and Sydney 

 Mine are on the opposite side of the harbor. 

 Sydney is 276 miles from Halifax, 728 miles 

 from Montreal and 2,240 miles from Liverpool, 

 England. Population in 1911, 17,723; in 1916, 

 estimated, 23,000. 



Sydney is noted for its coal trade and for 

 its extensive production of iron and steel. It is 

 the commercial center, both for wholesale and 

 retail trade, of the great coal field in Canada. 

 The occurrence of iron ore in proximity to coal 

 has made Sydney a manufacturing center as 

 well, with an annual output which is now over 

 $10,000,000 a year. The plant of the Dominion 

 Iron & Steel Company, which cost $35,000,000 

 and employs 4,000 men, is the greatest indus- 

 trial establishment, and among the smaller 

 plants worthy of mention are mills and fac- 

 tories for the production of tar, roofing mate- 

 rials, pressed brick, iron castings, sheet metal, 

 structural steel, boats and cigars. In the vi- 

 cinity are found silica, gypsum, fire clay and. 

 marble, and there is also considerable timber, 

 chiefly spruce, fir and hemlock. The city owns 

 its water and sewerage systems, but a private 

 company provides electric light. A.H.M. 



SYDNEY, sid'ni, the oldest city and the 

 chief naval station of Australia, and next to 

 Melbourne the most important British com- 

 mercial center in the southern hemisphere. It 

 is the capital of New South Wales and occu- 

 pies a beautiful site on the southern shore of 

 Port Jackson (see map of Australia, following 

 page 488). Sydney lies about eight miles from 

 the entrance to the vast harbor, which is de- 

 fended by several forts and batteries and is'so 

 large it is capable of sheltering all of the navies 

 of the world. The older section of the munici- 

 pality is rapidly being replaced by the streets 

 and buildings of a fine, modern city, worthy 

 to be compared with the capital cities of Eu- 

 rope and America. 



The most notable structure is the building 

 of the University of Sydney, which stands on 

 a picturesque height in Victoria Park. It is 

 built of sandstone, in fifteenth-century Gothic 

 style; grouped about it are three affiliated de- 

 nominational colleges. Among the fine churches 

 are Saint Mary's Cathedral (Roman Catholic) 

 and the Anglican Cathedral of Saint Andrew. 

 Other important edifices are the town hall, con- 



