92 ACER PSEUDO-PLATANUS. 
felled trees two hundred years old, and upwards of one hundred feet in height, 
the timber of which was perfectly sound. 
In France and Germany, the wood of the sycamore is much sought after by- 
wheelwrights, cabinet-makers, turners, sculptors in wood, manufacturers of musi- 
cal instruments, and especially of violins, and makers of toys, and other small 
wares. The roots, which are often beautifully veined, and the stools or 
stumps where the plant has long been treated as a bush, and cut periodically as 
coppice-wood, is eagerly sought after for curious cabinet-work, and for inlaying. 
The wood is used for pestles, for tables, rollers, spoons, plates, and other house- 
hold articles ; it is also used for gun-stocks, and in every kind of structure, 
whether under water or in the air. The leaves, gathered green, and dried, form 
an excellent forage for sheep, during the winter. The sap has been drawn from 
the trees in Germany, and various experiments made upon it. At first, it is as 
clear as water, and sweet ; but, after it has flowed from the tree for some time, 
and begins to run slowly, it takes a whitish colour, and becomes sweeter, and of 
a thicker consistence ; though it contains less sugar than that of the first flowing. 
The proportion of sugar produced by the sap varies. Sometimes an ounce of 
sugar from a quart of liquor has been obtained ; but, generally not so much. 
The variations depend upon the age of the tree, the vigour of its growth, the 
nature of the soil, the temperature of the season, and a number of other circum- 
stances, of which little is known. 
In Britain, the uses to which the sycamore is applied are much less varied 
than in France and Germany. It is used by joiners, turners, cabinet-makers, 
musical instrument makers ; for cheese and cider presses, and sometimes for gun- 
stocks. It is also extensively used, when of sufficient size, for machinery, in 
printing and bleaching works, for beetling-beams, and in foundries for making 
patterns, &c. In the western Highlands of Scotland, it is said that the sap of 
this tree is made into wine. 
As an underwood, the sycamore shoots freely from the stool to an age of 
eighty or one hundred years. As a timber-tree, it is most advantageously felled 
at the age of eighty years, or from that age to one hundred. 
As an ornamental tree, it produces the best effect, either singly, in groups of 
two or three, placed sufficiently near to form a whole, but not so as to touch 
each other; or planted in rows in avenues. Its picturesque beauties are thus 
described by Sir T. D. Lauder. "The spring tints of the sycamore are rich, 
tender, glowing, and harmonious; in summer its deep-green hue accords well 
with its grand and massive form, and the brown, and dingy reds of its autum- 
nal tints harmonize well with the mixed grove, to which they give a fine depth 
of tone." 
