374 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



curved secondary lobes occasionally found also on the terminal lobe, tomentose below and 

 pubescent above when the flowers open the end of March in Texas, later becoming glabrous 

 except on the under side of the midrib and veins, usually about ^f'-o-^' long and 3'-3|' 

 wide; petioles pubescent, becoming glabrous. Peduncles bearing one or rarely two heads. 

 Flowers and Fruit like those of the species. 



Distribution. Western Texas, common; valley of the Colorado River, near Austin, 

 Travis County, to that of the Devil's River, \ 7 alverde County; in Coahuila and Nuovo 

 Leon; rarely northward with widely scattered individuals; the prevailing form on the 

 Edwards Plateau and in the counties adjacent to the Rio Grande. 



2. Platanus racemosa Nutt. Sycamore. 



Leaves 3-5-lobed to below the middle by broad sinuses acute or rounded in the bottom, 

 the lobes acute or acuminate, entire, dentate with remote callous tipped teeth, or occa- 



Fig. 333 



sionally coarsely sinuate- toothed, usually cordate or sometimes truncate, or cuneate and 

 decurrent on the petiole at base, thick and firm, light green above, paler and more or less 

 thickly coated below with pale pubescence most abundant along the midrib and primary 

 veins, 6'-10' long and broad; petioles stout, pubescent, l'-3' in length; stipules !'-!%' 

 long, entire or dentate, often persistent until spring. Flowers : peduncles hoary-pubescent, 

 bearing usually 4 or 5 heads of staminate flowers and 2-7 heads of pistillate flowers, a head 

 of the staminate flowers occasionally appearing on the pistillate peduncle above the heads 

 of fertile flowers. Fruit: heads |' in diameter, on slender zigzag glabrous or pubescent 

 stems 6'-9' in length; akene acute or rounded at apex, long, tomentose while young, 

 becoming glabrous. 



A tree, 40-90 high, with a trunk sometimes 9 in diameter above the broad tapering 

 base, erect and free of branches for half its height, more often divided near the ground 

 into secondary stems erect, inclining, or prostrate for 20-30 at their base, thick heavy 

 more or less contorted spreading branches forming an open irregular round-topped head, 

 and branchlets coated at first with thick pale deciduous tomentum, light reddish brown, 

 and marked by numerous small lenticels in their first winter, becoming gradually darker 

 in their second and third years; usually smaller, w r ith a trunk 2-4 in diameter. Winter- 

 buds nearly %' long. Bark at the base of old trunks 3' -4' thick, dark brown, deeply fur- 

 rowed, w r ith broad rounded ridges separating on the surface into thin scales; thinner, 

 smooth, and pale, or almost white higher on the trunk and on the branches. 



Distribution. Banks of the streams of western California; valley of the upper Sac- 



