120 FOREST TREES. 
PLATANUS—PLANE TREE. 
Natural Order, Platanacee. 
Sterile flowers, of numerous stamens, with little 
scales intermixed; fertile flowers in separate catkins, 
consisting of inversely pyramidal ovaries, mixed with 
little scales; style, lateral, simple; nutlets, coriaceous, 
small, tawny, hairy below, containing a single seed. 
me occidentalis—Plane, Sycamor . Button- 
wood. 
Teaveat angularly sinuate, lobed or toothed, the 
short lobes sharp-pointed ; fertile heads, solitary, on 
a long peduncle. 
The Plane Tree is common throughout the north- 
ern, middle, and western States. It is found on the 
banks of rivers, and attains a greater size than any 
other deciduous tree in North America. Its wood is 
not valuable. It is little esteemed for fuel, is difficult 
to split, is very liable to warp, and speedily decays if 
exposed to the weather. It is sometimes sawed into 
square timber and planks, to be used where they can 
be kept dry. Asa timber tree, it is not worth culti- 
vation. It was formerly valued as a shade tree, but 
is now less esteemed on account of a disease, appar- 
ently a sort of blight, which often greatly disfigures 
it. The sceds, with the plumy tufts by which they 
are surmounted, are compacted together in the form 
of a ball, about an inch in diameter. They may be 
sown when ripe, or kept till spring. In the latter 
case, it is best to soak them before sowing. The tree 
may be propagated by cuttings of the last year’s wood. 
