(126) 



large patches of the light gray inner bark is a conspicuous 

 feature of this tree. The young branches, leaf-stalks and 

 leaf-blades are all covered with a coating of white wool 

 which falls off later. The broadly oval leaf-blades are 

 coarsely-toothed or lobed, heart-shaped at the base, and 

 sharp-pointed at the tip. Usually they are from 4 to 7 

 inches long, but vigorous young leaves are often twice this 

 size. The little ball-like clusters of flowers have given the 

 tree the frequently used name of button-ball. Usually the 

 sterile and fertile flowers are arranged in separate flower- 

 balls but sometimes a single ball may contain a mixture of 

 both kinds of flowers. The fruit is scarcely more than 1 

 inch in diameter, ball-like, and yellow-brown in color. 



The wood of the button wood, or sycamore as it is often 

 called, is used for making tobacco boxes, ox-yokes and other 

 articles and also for interior finishing. (Plate 145.) 



American Mountain Ash Sorb us Americana 



Throughout most of its range this plant is more shrub-like 

 than tree-like, but in the far north it often attains a height of 

 25 feet. 



The leaves are compound, that is, composed of from 

 12 to 18 lance-shaped leaflets all fastened to a common leaf- 

 stalk. Each leaflet is acute at both ends and sharply toothed. 

 The flowers are scarcely more than l /& inch in diameter but 

 some hundreds of them are arranged in a broad flat-topped 

 cluster that is frequently 3 or 4 inches across. In the fall 

 the tree is conspicuous with its brilliant scarlet berries. 



The tree is too small and weak-wooded in the Hudson 

 Valley to be of any commercial importance, but its brilliant 

 autumnal coloring and its clusters of white flowers make it a 

 splendid tree for decorative planting. 



American Crab Apple Malus coronaria 



The only native apple tree to grow wild in the Hudson 



Valley is this crab apple. All the ordinary apple trees are 



derived from the European apple, and in some places this 



