PLANE TREE FAMILY 
of the wood underneath and the tree is therefore obliged to 
slough it off. 
A second peculiarity is the way the leaves protect the 
growing buds, Examine a branch of almost any tree in early 
Fruit of the Sycamore, 
Platanus occidentalis. 
August and nestled in the axils of the 
leaves you will find the tiny forming 
buds which will produce the leaves of 
the coming year. The Sycamore branch 
apparently has no such buds. Are there 
then to be no more leaves on Sycamores 
in coming years? The conclusion is 
hasty. Observe the sudden enlarge- 
ment of the petiole, pull it from the 
branch, and there inclosed in a little 
tight-fitting case made of the base of 
the petiole is the bud. 
The great merit of the Sycamore is 
its vigor and luxuriance of growth; al- 
though at present the trees are greatly 
threatened by a fungus which attacks 
and destroys the first leaves and grow- 
ing shoots. This fungus was first dis- 
covered in Germany more than twenty 
years ago, but its occurrence in the 
United States was only recently recog- 
nized by botanists. The disease makes 
its appearance soon after the leaves 
have expanded, appearing in the form 
of small black spots which lie close to 
the veins. As a result the half grown 
leaves turn brown, shrivel, and fall. It 
is very common in early June to see 
inese trees putting forth their second crop of leaves while 
the first hang brown, dead, and unsightly on the ends of 
the branches. No efficient remedy has as yet been applied 
and if none develops the Sycamore is practically out of the 
race, for a tree which does not really get its leaves until July 
266 
