52 DISTRIBUTION OF 



an advantage to plant it in a hollow or glen, or in 

 the interior of a large plantation. 



The Great Maple, or Sycamore, {Acer pseudo- 

 platanus.) is supposed by some to be a native of 

 Britain, and by others of the continent of Europe. 

 This tree is more generally known by the common 

 name of the plane tree, which is the platanus of 

 botanists, and is originally from the Levant. The 

 sycamore grows to a large size, and hves to a 

 great age. There are many sycamores in Scotland, 

 at the present time, which I lip.ve myself mea- 

 sured, and found nearly twenty feet in circum- 

 ference and sixty feet high. It is not a tree that 

 carries height along with its girth, when compared 

 with many other forest trees; but it is, notwith- 

 standing, a magnificent tree, and few, if any other, 

 can vie with it upon the lawn or park. It is a 

 fast-growing tree, well adapted for almost every 

 situation, and well worthy of a place in every 

 forest where the soil is not damp nor mossy, nor 

 the situation too much exposed ; it being a rapid- 

 growing tree, it requires room to develope itself 

 properly. The timber is reckoned of equal value 

 with that of the elm when of good size. 



The circumstances which are found most favour- 

 able for the healthy development of the sycamore 

 are — soil, dry, sandy loam, with a free exposed 

 situation — as in the open parks about gentlemen's 

 home grounds : however, this tree may be profit- 



