u8 LONDON TREES 



of town trees, where it grows freely and shows little 

 signs of distress, even when planted in the most smoky 

 localities. The well-known and beautiful variegated 

 variety (A. Negundo variegatum) has silvery and green 

 leaves, and though it grows freely in towns the foliage 

 gets disfigured by persistent smoke and dust. 



The Silver-leaved Maple (A. dasycarpum) is one 

 of the most valuable for planting in London, where it 

 has attained to a large size, some of the trees in Regent's 

 Park being 70 feet high, the stems girthing 8 feet 

 10 inches at a yard from the ground. It is one of the 

 finest of deciduous trees, being in early spring covered 

 with reddish flowers, while its handsome leaves, green 

 above and silvery-white beneath, turn to a rich golden- 

 yellow in the autumn season. There are good 

 specimens in Battersea Park, as also at Poplar and in 

 some of the East End gardens. A peculiarity of this 

 tree is that shoots in quantity are usually sent out 

 all over the stem, even to ground-level. 



The uses of Sycamore wood are numerous and 

 varied, and though essentially a fancy timber, it is of 

 great utility, entering largely as it does into the work 

 of turnery and furniture making ; backs of brushes, 

 bobbins, rollers for wringing and washing machines, 

 printing blocks, and beetling beams in calico works are 

 all made of Sycamore wood. Parts of musical instru- 

 ments, pianos and violins in particular, as also bread 

 platters, milk pails, and dairy utensils generally, are 

 made of the wood. 



Seedlings are frequently lifted from where they 

 have appeared naturally, and after being transplanted 

 to the nursery ground make rapid progress, and in 

 three years are fit to be planted in their permanent 

 quarters. As soon as the seeds ripen, which is usually 



