146 FAMILIAR TREES 



rectangular scales is very characteristic, and is, per- 

 haps, a main reason for the impunity with which 

 the Plane thrives in the soot-laden atmosphere of 

 our metropolis. A copious annual crop of smoothly- 

 polished leaves, readily washed by the slightest 

 shower, and thus presenting a large surface to the 

 food-giving light and air, and a bark which thus 

 yearly throws off all impurity, constitute an ideal 

 city tree. 



We can hardly, perhaps, expect the enthusi- 

 asm of the poet to be quickly roused by the 

 foreign charm of exotic trees, so that it is 

 naturally the poets of America, the native home 

 of one variety of the Plane, who sing its praises. 

 It is to the appearance produced by this shedding 

 of the bark that Bryant alludes when he writes of 

 the Green River : 



" Clear are the depths where its eddies play, 

 And dimples deepen and whirl away; 

 And the Plane-tree's speckled arms o'ershoot 

 The swifter current that mines its root." 



The leaves are large, with stalks of some length, 

 and prominent veins, generally five in number, radiat- 

 ing to the acute points of their gracefully-lobed 

 outline. They are, however, " pseudo-palmate," only 

 three veins radiating from the base, and the other 

 principal ones being branches of these, unlike the 

 Sycamore, in which five or more radiate from the 

 base. Individual leaves may be as much as nine 

 inches long and eight in breadth, and though a 

 certain general character of outline distinguishes 

 the different geographical " races," the variety of 



