Handbook of Tkees oi^ the Xoetiieen States and Canada. 229 



This stately tree is considered the largest 

 deciduous tree of the North American forests, 

 In the rich bottom-lands of the h)wer Ohio 

 and the Mississippi valleys it towers to the 

 height of one hundred and fifty to one hundred 

 and seventy-five ft. and its trunk is some- 

 times ten or eleven ft. in diameter above its 

 tapering base. The trunk commonly divides 

 into two or three h^rge secondary trunks, which 

 raise its irregular or rounded head far above 

 the tops of most of the neighboring trees; or 

 it may have a single colnmnar trunk of great 

 height but often curved or leaning. 



A striking feature is the white bark of its 

 branches, and as its favorite abode is the 

 banks of streams their winding courses may 

 be traced from an eminence by the white 

 branches of the Sycamores which line their 

 banks. Quite as interesting as the bark of 

 these whitewashed branches is that of the 

 young trunks and the bases of large limbs, as 

 it is pied of many colors, as shown in our 

 picture, according to the varying length of 

 time the scales of outer bark have been oflF. 



The wood, of which a cubic foot weighs 30.40 

 lbs., is tough, strong, and very difficult to 

 split, and is used in the manufacture of boxes, 

 crates, butchers' blocks, etc., and when cut 

 quartering makes a handsome lumber for in- 

 terior finishing, furniture, etc.i 



Leave-'! wide-orbicular in outline, palmately ?•■'<- 

 lobed, with mostiy broad sinuate-dentate acuminate 

 lobes and wide sinuses ; stipules on vigorous shoots 

 1 to 11/2 in. long. Flrjierrn: pistillate peduncles 

 usually bearing one but sometimes two heads. 

 Fruit: heads from 1-H4 in. in diameter, usually 

 solitary on glab,-ous stem M-6 in. long ; alienes 

 truncate or rounded at apex.- 



1. .4. VV., 1, 13. 



2. For geuns see p. 437. 



