PLAXE-TEEE FAMILY. 



801 



pmposes, in almost every garden. The medicinal virtues of the cones 

 are also very considerable ; they reside in the little resinous atoms (lupu- 

 lin), which abound near the base of the scales. The hops for the brew- 

 eries are cultivated on a large scale, in some districts of the middle and 

 northern States — particularly in Western New York, — where, it is said, 

 thsy are a profitable crop. The staminate plant is of so little account, 

 that it is scarcely known except to the botanists. 



Order LXY. PLATANA'CEiE. (Plane-tree Family.) 



Tree?, with a watery juice, and alternate, pctiolate, palmately -nerved and lobed leaves with 

 sheathing, deciduous stipules and petioles which are tumid and hollow at base, concealing 

 the young buds. Flowers moncecious, minute and inconspicuous, densely crowded on 

 globose receptacles, — both kinds destitute of floral envelopes; heads pendulous on long 

 slender peduncles. Stamtxate Fl. Stamens numerous, irregularly mixed with subcla- 

 vate scales, densely crowded. Pisttllate Fl. Ovaries numerous, obconic or filiform-cla- 

 vate, densely crowded, mixed with spatulate scales {abortive ovaries) ; style elongated, 

 subulate, stigmatose on one side, near the apex. Fruit a 1-cellcd 1-seeded clavate coria- 

 ceous little nut, — the base surrounded with pappus-like hairs. Seed cylindric-oblong, 

 pendulous ; embryo in the axis of fleshy albumen. 



An Order consisting of the single genus here given, — and the fjeneric character ,oi com&Q 

 the same as that of the Order. 



1. PLAT'ANUS, L. Plaxe-tkee. 



l_Grcck, Platys, broad ; in allusion to its vvidc-sprcadiug branches and foliage.] 



1. P. occidexta'lis, L. Leaves roundish-pentagonal, acuminate, 

 obscurely palmate-lobed, sinuate-dentate, pubescent beneath. 



Western Platanus. Button-wood. Sycamore. Plane-tree. 



stem 60-100 feet high, and 2-4 or 5 feet or more, in diameter, with large spreading 

 branches, and a smoothish cinereous bark, which exfoliates in broad thinnish plates. 

 Leaves 3 - 6 or 8 inches long, and wider than long, — the base at first truncate, finally sub- 

 cordate, obscurely palmate or angulate-lobed, unequally sinuate-dentate with the teeth 

 acuminate, loosely clothed with a hoary branching deciduous pubescence ; peiioZes 1-3 

 inches in length, tumid and hollow at base, covering the young bxid which is formed 

 within and occupies the cavity ; stipules somewhat salver-form, sheathing the young bran- 

 ches immediately above the petioles, — the liirib spreading, foliaceous, coarsely and un- 

 equally toothed. Siaminate heads or globes small, on peduncles 1-2 inches long, deciduous. 

 Pistillate heads about an inch in diameter, pendulous on slender terete peduncles 3-5 in- 

 ches long, persistent. Nuts about one-third of an inch long, slender, subterete, clavate. 

 mucronate, — the base acute and invested with tawny pappus-like hairs. 



Banks of streams, road-sides, &c. : throughout the United States. Fl. April -Jlay. Fr. 

 Oct. 



Obs. This stately tree — originating from a very small seed — often 

 attains to a larger size than any other, east of the Eocky Mountains. 

 It is sometimes planted for shade, — but becomes rather large for streets^ 

 or to stand near houses. The timber is not much esteemed,— though 

 occasionally sawed into joists, and other lumber. For several years 



