THE SYCAMORE, OR GREAT MAPLE. 



15 



Frequently as we hear 

 the Sycamore abused as 

 not worth growing for the 

 value of its timber, and 

 devoid, as an ornamental 

 tree, of beauty of outline 

 and picturesque effect, we 

 nevertheless agree with 

 Sir T.Dick Lauder* that 

 it is " certainly a noble 

 tree." Vying in point of 

 magnitude, with the oak, 

 the ash, and other trees 

 of the first rank, it pre- 

 sents a grand unbroken mass of foliage, contrasting well, 

 in appropriate situations, and when judiciously grouped, 

 with trees of a lighter and more airy character, and afford- 

 ing, as Gilpin expresses it, " an impenetrable shade." Lau- 

 der well observes, " The spring tints of the Sycamore are 

 rich, tender, glowing, and harmonious ; in summer its deep 

 green hue accords well with its grand and massive form, 

 and the brown and dingy reds of its autumnal tints har- 

 monise well with the mixed grove to which they give a 

 fine depth of tone." The colour of the bark is also agree- 

 able to the eye, being of a fine ash grey, frequently broken 

 into patches of different hues, by the peeling off, in old 

 trees, of large flakes of the outer bark in the manner of 

 the plane. 



The indigenous origin of the Sycamore has been doubted 

 by many British authors, and indeed the earliest records we 

 have, speak of it as a stranger, or tree that had been intro- 

 duced. Turner, who wrote in 1551, and Gerard, in 1597, 



* See the ed. of Gilpin's " Forest Scenery," by Sir T. D. Lauder, v. i. p. 123. 



