298 



PLANTS AND MAN 



young trunks or large limbs flakes off, leaving the light colored 

 inner bark exposed, and giving the limbs and trunk a character- 

 istically mottled appearance. 



One commercial species, the sycamore or plane tree, ranges 

 widely from southern Maine to northern Florida, and from 



I 



Fig. 215. — ^The mottled bark of the sycamore is a conspicuous feature of this 

 common deciduous tree. 



southern Michigan to southwestern Texas. It is one of the largest 

 of eastern hardwood trees, reaching a maximum size of one hun- 

 dred seventy five by fourteen feet, and having a probable life 

 span of six hundred years. The mottled bark (fig. 215) and open 

 spreading crown afford an easy means of distinguishing this tree 

 from its associates on riverbank and bottom-land habitats. The 



