346 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



2. Platanus racemosa, Nutt. Sycamore. Plane-tree. 



Leaves 3-5-lobed to below the middle, with acute or acuminate lobes, entire, 

 dentate, with remote callous tipped teeth, or occasionally coarsely sinuate-toothed, 



and broad sinuses acute or rounded at the bottom, usually cordate or sometimes 

 truncate and wedge-shaped or decurrent on the petioles at the base, thick and firm, 

 light green above, paler and more or less thickly coated below with pale pubescence 

 most abundant along the midribs and primary veins, 6'-10' long and broad; their 

 petioles stout, pubescent, l'-3' long; stipules I'-l^' long, entire or dentate, often per- 

 sistent until the 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 peduncles above the heads 

 of fertile flowers. Fruit: heads ^' in diameter, on slender zigzag glabrous or pubes- 

 cent stems 6'-9' long; akene acute or rounded at the apex, $' long, tomentose while 

 young, becoming glabrous. 



A tree, occasionally 100-120 high, with a trunk sometimes 9 in diameter above 

 the broad tapering base, erect and free of branches for half its height, more often 

 dividing near the ground into secondary stems erect, inclining, or prostrate for 

 20-30 at their base, thick heavy more or less contorted spreading branches form- 

 ing an open irregular round-topped head, and brauchlets 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 and generally 70-80 tall, with a trunk 2-4 in diameter. 

 Winter-buds nearly \' long. Bark at the base of old trunks 3'-4' thick, dark 

 brown, deeply furrowed, with 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. Valley of the lower Sacramento River, California, southward 

 through the interior valleys and coast ranges; and on Mount San Pedro Martir in 

 Lower California; an inhabitant of the banks of streams; exceedingly common in 

 all the valleys of the California coast range from Monterey to the southern borders 

 of the state, and ascending the southern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains to 

 elevations of 3000. 



