154 FAMILIAR TREES 



known as the Plane, a confusion commemorated 

 by Linnaeus in the specific name Pseudo-Flatanus, 

 and in the French " fausse Platane." The only re- 

 semblance, however, between the Sycamore and the 

 Plane, lies in the form of the leaves, which between 

 certain other species of the Maple group and some 

 varieties of the Plane does indeed amount almost to 

 an identity of outline and of venation. The leaves of 

 the Plane, however, are not in opposite pair& : their 

 lobes are commonly more pointed than those of the 

 Sycamore, and their surface is more glossy, and of a 

 brighter, more yellow shade of green; whilst the 

 globular monoecious catkins and bur-like fruit-clusters 

 of the former are altogether unlike the raceraes of 

 greenish flowers, followed by bunches of winged fruits, 

 or " keys," in the tree which we are now considering. 



The Sycamore is essentially a native of Central 

 Europe, occurring most abundantly in wooded, moun- 

 tainous situations in Germany, Austria, Italy, and 

 Switzerland, in which last-mentioned country it 

 ascends on dry soils to an altitude of nearly 3,000 feet 

 above sea-level, sufi'ering but little from frost or snow 

 It will grow in any soil not saturated with moisture, 

 but prefers dry and well-drained ground to stiff clay or 

 loam. It will grow in exposed situations even on the 

 sea coast; and, owing to the stiff, angular mode of 

 growth of its branches giving it an exceptionally 

 strong " spray," as it is technically termed, few trees 

 are better adapted to act as a shelter from the winds in 

 such spots. Even when the winds blow strongly in 

 one direction for nine months out of the twelve, the 

 Sycamore will retain its symmetrical, outline, its head 



