PLAISTE-TEEE FAMILY. 



SOI 



purposes, 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 Yorli, — where, it is said, 

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

 that it is scarcely known except to the botanists. 



OederLXY. PLAT ANA' CE.^:. (Plane-tree Family.) 



Trees, with a watery juice, and alternate, petiolate, palmately-nerved and lobed leaves with 

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

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

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

 slender peduncles. Staminate Fx. Stamens numerous, irregularly mixed with subcla- 

 Yate scales, densely crowded. Pistili^vte 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-celled 1-seeded clavate coria- 

 ceous little nut, — the base surrounded with pappus-like hairs. Seed cyliadric-obloug, 

 pendulous ; embryo in the axis of fleshy albumen. 



An Order consisting of the single genus here given, — and the geno'ic character, of Goarse 

 the same as that of the Order. 



1. PLAT'ANUS, L. Plane-tree. 



[Greek, Platys, broad ; in allusion to its wide-spreading branches and foliage.] 



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

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



Western Platands. 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 exfohates 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 puhescance ; petioles 1-3 

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

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

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

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

 Pt^iillate heads about an inch in diameter, pendulous on slender terete pedr.ncles 3-5 in- 

 ches long, persistent. Nut^ 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 -May. Fr. 

 Oct. 



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

 attains to a larger size than any other, east of the Rocky 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 



