MOUNTAIN TREES 



of the setting sun and watched the bees 

 as they flew about in tuneful circles, 

 heard the outbursts of melody from hap- 

 py birds perched among the branches 

 then you know the sweet companionship 

 of the sycamores. 



The California sycamore belongs to 

 the Plane-tree family and is not to be 

 confused with the sycamore of the Bible 

 (properly spelled sycomore), a tree 

 which is closely allied to the common 

 fig. (Sycomore means fig-mulberry). 



The flowers male and female oc- 

 cur on different parts of the same tree. 

 Both hang in ball-like clusters, the male 

 groups being the smaller. The dense 

 heads of fruit are made up of numerable 

 nutlets at whose bases are circlets of 

 many long, stiff hairs. These fruit 

 clusters of two to seven heads are ar- 

 tistically arranged on pendent stems 

 and persist until the following spring. 

 These, according to Evermann, are 

 greedily eaten by the band-tailed pig- 

 eons, as many as thirty-five of the ball- 



91 



