158 FAMILIAR TREES 



it is called " polygamous," as is the case not only in 

 most Maples, but also in the allied Horse-chestnut. 

 In summer's heat, " the cool shade of a Sycamore " 

 afforded by the close overlapping of the broad leaves 

 is truly grateful, and one regrets to see in them the 

 early symptoms of coming autumn, when the tree 

 appears, as Cowper says, / 



" capricious in attire : 

 Now green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet 

 Has chang'd the woods, in scarlet honours bright." 



Then, too, not only the leaves, but also the twin 

 scimitars of the fruit, are tinged with red. A simple 

 two-veined parachute, adapted to fall, a little later on, 

 in screw-like whirlings in the autumn gales, so as to 

 carry the seed away from the fatal shelter of its 

 parent tree, the curved outline of this fruit; known to 

 the botanist as a " double samara,!' is well worth the 

 attentive study of the artist or the mechanician. Its 

 inner edges follow, in fact, that celebrated "line of 

 beauty " upon which Hogarth so' strongly insisted. 



The wood of the Sycamore is used by turners for 

 spindles, bread-platters, butter-moulds, mangle-roUers, 

 and especially for moulds ; but it is not very durable. 

 It is white and fine-grained, but soft, and yields a 

 good charcoal for the finer sorts of gunpowder. In 

 former times, however, the tree seems to have been 

 connected in warfare with a very different purpose, for 

 we read that " they were used by the most powerful 

 barons in the West of Scotland for hanging their 

 enemies and refractory vassals on, and for this reason 

 were called ' dool,' or grief, trees. Of these trees there 

 are three yet standing, the most memorable being one 



