Leaves Alternate. 53 



Genus PLATANUS, L. (Buttonwood.) 



From a Greek word meaning broad, in reference to the breadth of its shade or of its 



leaf. 



Fig. 26. — Buttonwood, Buttonball Tree, Plane Tree, 

 Sycamore.* P. occidentalism L. 



Leaves, simple ; alternate ; edge variable, either 



COARSE-TOOTHED OR SOMEWHAT LOBED ) with the 



teeth or lobes sharp, and the hollows between them 

 rounded. 



Outline, rounded. Apex, pointed. Base, more or less 

 heart-shaped, squared, or rounded. 



Leaf-stem, downy when young, smoothish when old ; and 

 covering the leaf-bud with its swollen base. 



Leaf, three and a half to eight inches wide, and usually 

 broader than long ; downy beneath when young, be- 

 coming smooth. 



Bark, the thin outer bark peels off each year in hard and 

 brittle strips, leaving the branches and parts of the 

 trunk with a mottled, whitish, polished-looking sur- 

 face. 



Floivcrs, small, in compact, round balls (about one inch 

 in diameter) like round buttons, which dry and 

 harden, and cling to the branches by their slender 

 stems (three to four inches long), and swing like 

 little bells during a good part of the winter. 



Found, from Southern Maine, southward and westward, 

 in rich, moist soil, oftenest along streams. Its finest 

 growth is in the bottom lands of the Mississippi and 

 Ohio rivers. 



* The name " sycamore," though a common one, should be dropped. It belongs 

 to another and very different tree. 



