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SYCAMORE, or GREAT MAPLE. — ACER 

 PSEUDO-PLATANUS. 



Natural order, Trihilatce. Acera, Juss. A 

 genus of the Polygamia Moncecia class. 



Nor unnoticed pass 





The sycamore, capricious in attire, 



Now green, now tawny, and, ere autumn yet 



Have changed the woods." Cowper. 



The great maple-tree was called, in Greek, 

 ZtpevSufjLvog, Sphendamnos ; but Saint Luke, 

 who wrote his gospel in Rome, probably 

 changed the Latin name of this tree into 

 Greek, as he calls it ^vKopufiulu, Sycomoraia, 

 (chap. xix. ver. 4.), from whence we have 

 evidently derived the name of Sycamore. 



The sycamore became celebrated as being 

 the tree on which Zaccheus climbed to see 

 Christ pass on his way to Jerusalem, when 

 the people strewed leaves and branches of 

 palm and other trees in his way, exclaiming, 

 " Hosanna to the son of David ;" and to 

 commemorate which, the Catholic Church 

 still retains the practice of blessing branches 



