VII. THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. 230 
liant polish, is seen in the famous Scotch snuff-boxes, which 
are made of it. 
Mr. Nuttall has described* a remarkably distinct species of 
plane tree, which he calls the California buttonwood, Platanus 
racemosus. ‘The leaves are “divided more than half way down 
into five, sharp-pointed, lanceolate portions, of which the two 
lower are the smallest ; all the divisions are quite entire, two of 
them in small leaves are suppressed, thus producing a leaf of 
only three parts. Above, as usual, the surface is at first clad 
with a yellowish, copious down, formed of ramified hairs, 
which quickly falls off and spreads itself in the atmosphere. 
The under surface of the leaves is, however, always copiously 
clad with a coat of whitish wool, which remains. The young 
leaves, clad in their brown, pilose clothing, have a very uncom- 
mon appearance, and feel exactly like a piece of stout, thick, 
woollen cloth. The branchlets, petioles and peduncles are 
equally villous. The male catkins are small, less in size than 
peas, full of long haired scales, and with unusually small an- 
thers. ‘Ihe female catkins are in racemes of three to five in 
number, with remarkably long styles, being between two and 
three tenths of an inch in length, and persistent on the ripe 
balls. ‘The raceme with the full grown balls measures nine 
inches. ‘The tree has, therefore, a very unusual appearance, 
filled with these very long, pendulous racemes, each bearing 
from three to four, or even five balls, at the distance of about 
an inch from each other. The stigmas are at first of a deep 
and bright brown.’’ Mr. Nuttall supposes the wood to be su- 
perior to that of the common species, harder, more durable, and 
less liable to warp. 
The leaves and fruit of this tree are figured in Nuttall’s 
Supplement to the North American Sylva, I, Plate 15, and in 
Audubon’s Birds of America, Plate 362. 
The plane tree may be propagated by seed, by layers or by 
cuttings. ‘The best and surest way is by seed. These are 
ripe, in our climate, in October or November. They may be 
readily separated from the globular aments, by beating or by 
* Nuttall’s Supplement to the N. A. Sylva, I, 47—48. 
