APRIL 217 



dense foliage for which it is chiefly esteemed, no part of 

 it being of any particular commercial value. 



Xo tree is easier to identify. Its leaves, bark, flowers, 

 fruits, all are characteristic. 



In spring the new shoots and leaves are covered with 

 a copious down, which is gradually shed during the first 

 season, except from the under side of the leaves and at 

 the joints of the stem. 



The pistillate flowers make a globular ball, five-eighths 

 of an inch in diameter. This afterwards forms the but- 

 ton-ball, or fruit cluster, which often swings on the tree 

 by its long slender stem the greater part of the winter. 

 The stamiuate flowers are on a slender thread, one or two 

 inches in length. 



The brown gray bark of the buttonwood peels off each 

 year in thin, broad, brittle pieces, showing the light buff, 

 fresh bark beneath. 



The sycamores, still standing, celebrated by Whittier 

 in his poem of that name, were planted by the ]\[errimac, 

 where now stands the town of Haverhill, nearly a hun- 

 dred and twenty years ago. Under their shade passed 

 Washington in his triumphal journey to the Xorth in 

 1789, and it was underneath them that AMiittier planned 

 out his poem of Skipper Ireson's Ride. 



The Oriental Sycamore, often planted in our parks and 

 closely resembling the buttonwood, was a great favorite 

 with all European nations ; from the Greeks and the 

 Romans, who are said to have nourished it with pure 

 wine, to the Italians, Spaniards, and French, who, in 

 early times, were compelled to pay for the pri^'ilege of 

 sitting beneath its shade. 



It is said that the famous general, Xerxes, was so 

 delighted with a beautiful tree of this kind that grew in 



