110 TREES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



PLATANACE.E. PLANE-TREE FAMILY. 



Platanus occidentalis, L. 

 BUTTONWOOD. SYCAMORE. BUTTONBALL. PLANE TREE. 



Habitat and Range. Near streams, river bottoms, and low, 

 damp woods. 



Ontario. 



Maine, apparently restricted to York county ; New Hamp- 

 shire, Merrimac valley towards the coast ; along the Con- 

 necticut as far as Walpole ; Vermont, scattering along the 

 river shores, quite abundant along the Hoosac in Pownal 

 (Eggleston) ; Massachusetts, occasional ; Rhode Island and 

 Connecticut, rather common. 



South to Florida; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas. 



Habit. A tree of the first magnitude, 50-100 feet and 

 upwards in height, with a diameter of 3-8 feet ; reaching in 

 the rich alluvium of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys a 

 maximum of 125 feet in height and a diameter of 20 feet ; 

 the largest tree of the New England forest, conspicuous by its 

 great height, massive trunk and branches, and by its magnifi- 

 cent, wide-spreading, dome-shaped or pyramidal, open head. 

 The sunlight, streaming through the large-leafed, rusty foliage, 

 reveals the curiously mottled patchwork bark ; and the long- 

 stemmed, globular fruit swings to every breeze till spring 

 comes again. 



The lower branches are often very long and almost hori- 

 zontal, and the branchlets frequently have a tufted, broom- 

 like appearance, due probably to the action of a fungous 

 disease on the young growth. 



Bark. Bark of trunk and large branches dark greenish- 

 gray, sometimes rough and closely adherent, but usually flak- 

 ing off in broad, thin, brittle scales, exposing the green or buff 

 inner bark, which becomes nearly white on exposure ; branch- 

 lets light brown, sometimes ridgy towards the ends, marked 

 with numerous inconspicuous dots. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds short, ovate, obtuse, enclosed 

 in the swollen base of a petiole, and, after the fall of the leaf, 



