Vil. THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. 233 
43 and ’44. The shoots seemed to have been nipped as by a 
frost. The large trees were particularly affected, but by no 
means exclusively. For some weeks, in each of these springs, 
many of the trees seemed to have been killed. In the course of 
the summers, most of them have pushed forth leaves on the 
sides of the branches, and have seemed partially recovering. 
The extremities of the branches, on almost all the buttonwoods, 
are dead, and many of the trees are now, in the fall of 1845, 
completely so. 
This malady has been attributed to various causes. By most 
persons, it is considered the effect of frost. Others ascribe it to 
the action of some insect or worm; and others believe it to be 
some unaccountable disease. 
It seems to me most probable that it is owing to the tree’s not 
maturing its wood during the previous summer, so that it is 
incapable of resisting the cold of winter. The present season, 
of 1845, has been a remarkably warm one, and this year, if 
ever, the buttonwood must have had time to mature its wood. 
If the wood formed during the present season should not be 
affected by the cold of the spring of 1546, some confirmation 
will be given to this conjecture. 
Very httle use m the arts is made of the wood of the plane 
tree. It 1s very perishable when exposed to the weather; it is 
said to warp considerably, and in every valuable property is 
thought to be surpassed by other kinds of timber equally abund- 
ant and accessible. For some purposes of ornament, however, it 
would seem to present claims to attention. The roots, accord- 
ing to Michaux, have a beautifully red color, when taken from 
the earth, but lose it on exposure to the light. Means might 
doubtless be found to make this color permanent. The wood of 
the stem is hard, of a firm and close texture, of an agreeable, 
faint red color, and beautifully varied by close lines of silver 
grain. There is every reason to believe that it is as valuable 
as that of the oriental plane, and that the great excellence and 
variety of our timber trees have alone prevented the necessity 
of its use. 
S. W. Pomeroy, Esq., in an article in the fifth volume of the 
New England Farmer, urges the cultivation of the buttonwood. 
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