VIL. THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. 227 
trees are considered as belonging to the Bread Fruit Family, 
with which they have many points of resemblance. 
‘The planes are natives of the Levant, Barbary, and North 
America. The bark has some astringency, the leaves have been 
used in fomentations, and were formerly considered an antidote 
to the bite of serpents. 
THE PLANE TREE. PLATANUS. L. 
This is a genus, the only one of the family, of lofty trees, 
with broad, spreading branches, and large leaves, forming a 
dense foliage. The young shoots, leaves, and stipules are thick- 
ly covered with fine down, which, as they expand, falls off, and 
floating in the atmosphere, is liable to be inhaled by persons in 
their vicinity. This produces a disagreeable cough, sometimes 
of considerable duration; and the circumstance forms a strong 
objection to planting these trees in the neighborhood of dwelling- 
houses. 
Two species, the Occidental Plane, and the Californian, are 
found within the territory of the United States. a third, the 
Oriental, is generally diffused on the eastern continent, and two 
others, possibly varieties of this. occur in the extreme east. The 
only one native to Massachusetts is 
Tue Buttronwoop Tree. Pidtfanus occidentalis. 1. 
Figured in Michaux, Sylva, Hl, Plate 63; in Catesby’s Carolina, Plate 56. 
The tree is represented, as seen in winter, in Loudon, Arb., VIII, Plate 289. 
The leaves are figured, together with the beautiful Plane Tree Moth, whose 
caterpillar lives on them, by Abbott, IJ, Plate 55; and by Audubon, with the 
Summer Duck; Birds of America, III, Plate 206. 
Ata place called Vaucluse, some miles from Newport, on the 
island of Rhode Island, on an estate formerly belonging to Samuel 
Elam, a man of taste and of humanity, there was standing, in 
September, 1539, on the side of a small stream, a buttonwood 
tree, which measured at one foot from the surface of the ground, 
twenty-four feet four inches. The thickness of the tree and the 
declivity of the bank, made the ground two feet anda half 
higher on one side than on the other, so that this measure was 
