CHAPTER XV 



The Plat anus or Buttonball 



The plane-trees, sycamores, and buttonball or buttonwood trees, 

 comprise the family Platanaceae and well repay consideration. 

 Not only are some of them among the most attractive, but they 

 are the most massive among our deciduous trees, even if they are 

 not the tallest. Pliny tells us that "no tree whatsoever which so 

 well defends us from the heat of the sun in summer," and Evelyn 

 writes of it in the following language: "the incomparable and shady 

 Platanus, that so beautiful and precious tree which we read the 

 Romans brought out of the Levant." These writers referred to 

 the Oriental species, and the earlier botanists Hke Willdenow de- 

 nied that the plane tree was indigenous in North America. Our 

 plane is equal in every respect to the Old World tree although it is 

 said to be less hardy in artificial plantings, consequently the 

 Oriental tree is common in our city parks. The two are scarcely 

 distinguishable but the native tree has soHtary buttonballs or fruits 

 whereas the oriental tree has several on a single stalk. 



They are a widely scattered but waning type in these modern 

 days, for the family consists of the single genus Platanus with only 

 6 or 7 species of southwestern Asia, Eastern and western North 

 America, Mexico and Central America. The members of this 

 small group are very uniform in general appearance, with large 

 deciduous leaves, minute flowers in closely packed pendulous heads 

 that remain attached during the winter, during which season the 

 pappose fruits are widely distributed by the winds. The leafstalks 

 are enlarged at the base to enclose the winter buds; and the bark 

 is very thin, smooth, and pale green or whitish. The wood is 

 likewise rather uniform, in all being Hght brownish or reddish in 

 color with wide rays. It splits poorly and in general is of secondary 

 commercial importance. 



The known ancestral history of these trees extends back into 

 the dim past a staggering number of thousands or even miUions 



157 



