The Sycamores 



hard brown seed balls, banging against neighbouring limbs until 

 the flexible stems are worn to shreds, and the pointed seeds are 

 loosened and wafted away on their hairy parachutes. Most of the 

 seeds die, of course, but Nature sees to it that here and there a 

 sycamore seed falls on good ground; and a young sapling lifts its 

 broad palms next year above the spot. 



Some people object to sycamores because the leaves as they 

 unfold cast off their fuzzy covering of branched hairs, which are 

 irritating to the mucous membrane of the eyes and throat. Most 

 of us have never heard of this trouble before, and have lived com- 

 fortably in the neighbourhood of sycamore trees for years. Hap- 

 pily, this moulting period of the leaves is very brief. A more 

 serious obstacle to the planting of these trees is their susceptibility 

 to a fungous disease. The young leaves often look scorched imme- 

 diately upon opening. A second crop of inferior size and vigour 

 may replace them. Examine an affected leaf, and you find black 

 specks along the veins. These are the outward signs of inward 

 trouble, which is too deep-seated to be reached by any fungicidal 

 spray. Let us hope that time will show a cure, for the sycamore 

 is one of the trees that grows rapidly and flourishes amid the dust 

 and smoke of city streets. How few kinds of trees there are, after 

 all, that stand by to shelter and encourage city-bound humanity 

 through the hot summer days, making fresh green oases in burning 

 brick-and-mortar deserts! 



The California Sycamore (P. racemosa, Nutt.) bears its but- 

 ton balls in a series of four to six strung on the tough, fibrous stem. 

 The leaves have the same general outline as those of its Eastern 

 relative, but the lobes are slenderly triangular, and deeply cleft 

 by sinuses of about the same size and shape. This beautiful 

 Western tree was long confused with P. occidenialis, for its 

 bark is white, and in habit and size the two are similar. A 

 comparison of the leaf and the fruit easily enables one to dis- 

 tinguish them. 



The Arizona Sycamore (P. Wrightii, Wats.) is a sycamore 

 which looks like P. racemosa in fruit and leaf, but the lobes of the 

 latter are much more finger-like, and measure often 8 to lo inches 

 in length. These trees are strikingly beautiful objects, growing 

 to large size on canon sides and stream borders, rising far above 

 the evergreen oaks and pines of the semi-arid regions, each tree a 

 refreshing dash of verdure in a weary land. 



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