DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. Ill 



branches of the plane shoot out in a horizontal direction ; the 

 trunk generally ascending in a regular, stately, and uninter- 

 rupted manner. The blossoms are small greenish balls, ap- 

 pearing in spring, and the fertile ones grow to an inch in 

 diameter, assuming a deep brownish colour, and hang upon 

 the tree during the whole winter. A striking and peculiar 

 characteristic of the plane, is its property of throwing off or 

 shedding continually the outer coating of bark here and there 

 in patches. Professor Lindley [Litroduction to the Natural 

 System, 2d ed. 187,) says this is owing to its deficiency in the 

 expansive power of the fibre common to the bark of other 

 trees, or, in other words, to the rigidity of its tissue : being 

 therefore incapable of stretching with the growth of the tree, 

 it bursts open on different parts of the trunk, and is cast off. 

 This gives the trunk quite a lively and picturesque look ; 

 extending more or less even to the extremity of the branches, 

 which makes this tree quite conspicuous in winter. Bryant, 

 in his address to Green River, says : 



" 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 great merit of the plane or button wood, is its extreme 

 vigour and luxuriance of growth. In a good soil, it will rea- 

 dily reach a height of thirty-five or forty feet in ten years. It 

 is easily transplanted ; and in new residences, bare of trees, 

 where an effect is desired speedily, we know of nothing better 

 adapted quickly to produce abundance of foliage, shelter, and 

 shade. "When the requisite foliage is obtained, and other 

 trees of slower growth have reached a proper size, the former 

 may be thinned out. As the plane tree grows to the largest 

 size, it is only proper for situations where there is consider- 



