OCTOBER. 



459 



last winter, which greatly injured all kinds of fruit trees in 

 the West, and in many places killed them to the ground. 

 The pear crop also suffered in Western New York from an 

 unprecedented dry season, and the specimens were not near 

 so fine as usual. Of peaches there were scarcely any. East- 

 ern cultivators made good contributions of pears, but much 

 of the interest of the meeting was lost from the failure of the 

 apple crop, which prevented the magnificent display of this 

 fruit which our Western nurserymen have been enabled to 

 make. We shall review the proceedings of the Society as 

 soon as the published report is received. 



THE BUTTONWOOD. 



BY WILSON FLAGG. 



The Button wood, (Platanus occidentalis), or Western 

 plane, sometimes improperly called the Sycamore, is a well 

 known tree in all parts of the United States. The Oriental 

 plane, a kindred species that closely resembles it, was a fa- 

 vorite shade tree among the ancient Romans, and many of 

 the largest trees on record were of this species. It was orig- 

 inally brought from the east, and probably to this circum- 

 stance owes a great part of its celebrity. In the days of the 

 Roman empire, as this tree was then ''dear bought and far 

 fetched," fashion seems to have stamped it with an extrinsic 

 value, and the praises dealt out in its favor have been since 

 quoted as its real deserts, without particular examination. 

 Like the American plane, its timber is of an inferior quality, 

 and it must have been prized for its large dimensions, rather 

 than for any superior beauty of form or foliage ; for unless 

 the Oriental plane exceeds the American species in many 

 important respects, it is remarkable chiefly for its superior 

 size. 



When these noble trees, which were so conspicuous twenty 

 years ago in our landscape, began to perish from some un- 

 known and mysterious cause, all the lovers of nature were 



