VIL. THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. 231 
and the branchlet is encircled at that point by a ridge formed by 
the scar of the pair of stipules; whence the smaller branches 
have a jointed appearance. 
The female catkins are a globular ball, five eighths of an 
inch in diameter, at the end of a flexible, downy footstalk, 
which is from two to five inches long, and one-eighth of an 
inch in diameter. The styles are in twos—or, if double, cleft 
to the base, completely investing the ball, close-set, swelling 
and hairy at base, tapering, green, with a small, declined head, 
and a reddish, glandular fringe on one edge as a stigma. 
The young leaves are accompanied by a pair of short, brown- 
ish, sheathing, scale-like, deciduous stipules, and, with their 
footstalks, are covered with a thick cottony down. 
The male catkins are on slender, tapering, dusty threads, one 
or two inches long. They are one quarter of an inch in diam- 
eter, and are invested by numberless stamens, completely in 
contact, each consisting of two cells, opening at the sides, 
white, and pouring out white pollen, and surmounted by a 
brownish green, glandular disk, forming together the surface of 
the ball. The footstalks of the catkins have stipules at base, 
like those of the leaves, but smaller; those of the feinale 
often having one or two miniature leaves, and a peculiar au- 
ricular appendage towards the base, as if they were abortive 
branches. 
In most parts of New England, this tree is called buttonwood 
by the common people. Sycamore is a name often given to it; 
and it is sometimes called the plane tree. In England it is called 
the occidental plane to distinguish it from the European, which 
is called the oriental. There is no propriety in calling it syca- 
more, as that name indicates a totally different tree. Dlane tree 
or platane is classical; but buttonwood is the good, English, 
descriptive name which belongs to at. 
According to Michaux, this tree is found as far north as 
Montreal, in Canada, where it is called by the French the cot- 
ton tree. Along the coast, I have found it in the county of 
York, in Maine. Its range southward is beyond the Missis- 
sippi, and in longitude from the Atlantic, through the extreme 
Western States. It flourishes best on a deep, loose, rich soil, 
