BUTTONWOOD AND MULBERRIES 



lays bare the tender and immature fresh growth 

 of old age." 



Bryant says in his poem, " To the Green 

 River " : 



" Clear are its 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." 



Gray calls the buttonwood our largest tree, 

 and Emerson alludes to it as " the largest, grand- 

 est, and loftiest deciduous tree in America ; " 

 while Gilpin says that " no tree forms a more 

 pleasing shade than the occidental plane." 



The wood takes a good polish and is used 

 for making furniture, ox yokes, and for the 

 interior finish of houses. 



The generic name, Platanus, comes from 

 the Greek word for broad, and has reference 

 to the wide-spreading leaves and branches of 

 the tree. The specific name, occidentalis, was 

 given to the sycamore as distinctive from 

 Platanus orientalis, the oriental plane tree of 

 Europe. The oriental plane is planted occa- 

 sionally in this country, and may be distin- 

 guished from our native species by its broader 

 head and by the fruit, which frequently 

 hangs in clusters instead of singly on the 

 tree. 



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