VIL. THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. 229 
little toughness, and usually, on the stem and larger branches, 
flakes off in broad, irregular scales, leaving portions of the inner 
layers, of a light yellowish color, exposed. These bright patches, 
seen among the green leaves, or on the uniform gray of the stem, 
produce often a striking effect. Sometimes the upper part of 
the trunk is seen quite smooth, but of different colors, as there 
is no regularity in the period or extent of the exfoliation of the 
bark. Sometimes the trunk is uniform and rough, with unequal 
roundish scales while the limbs are smooth and mottled. 
No tree,” says Gilpin,” ‘‘forms a more pleasing shade than 
the occidental plane. It is full leated, and its leaf is larce, 
smooth, of a fine texture, and seldom injured by insects. Its 
lower branches, shooting horizontally, soon take a direction to 
the ground; and the spray seems more sedulous than that of 
any tree we have, by twisting about in various forms, to fill up 
every little vacuity with shade. At the same time, it must be 
owned, the twisting of its branches is a disadvantage to this 
tree, as it is to the beech, when it is stripped of its leaves and 
reduced to a skeleton. It has not the natural appearance which 
the spray of the oak, and that of many other trees. discovers in 
winter. Nor indeed does its fohage. from the largeness of the 
leaf and the mode of its growth, make the most picturesque 
appearance 1n summer. 
‘The oriental plane is a tree nearly of the same kind, only its 
leaf is more palmated, nor has it so great a disposition to over- 
shadow the ground, as the occidental plane: at least 1 never 
saw any in our climate form so noble a shade, though in the 
East it is esteemed among the most shady, and most magnifi- 
cent of trees.” 
The recent shoots are overspread with a copious grayish 
down, which they lose, in the course of the first season, except 
about the nodes or joints, and become of a grayish purple, or 
chestnut brown. Thenext year they are smooth and of a green- 
ish gray, thickly scattered with mmute gray dots. ‘he green 
tinge gradually fades, and they assume a uniform light gray or 
yellowish color, almost white, as seen from a distance. The 
* Forest Scenery, I, 109—10. 
