47 
CALIFORNIA BUTTONWOOD, or PLANE. 
PL AT ANUS racemosus; foliis quinquelobo-palmatis basi 
truncatis subsinuatis subtus lanuginosis pallidis , laciniis 
lanceolatis acnminatis integris , stipulis angulatis , fructi- 
bus racemosis. Nuttall, Mss. in Audubon’s Birds of Ame- 
rica, tab. 362. 
This remarkably distinct species of Platanus is a 
native of Upper California, in the vicinity of Sta. Bar- 
bara, where it puts on very much the appearance of 
our common Buttonwood, ( Platanus occidental ™ .) As 
far as I yet know, it is the only species on the western 
coast of America. It grows probably farther north, but 
I did not meet wdth it in the territory of Oregon. It 
does not appear in this unfriendly climate to arrive at 
the gigantic magnitude of its eastern prototype, though 
it equally affects rich bottom lands and the borders of 
streams, but the scarcity of rain, in this climate, which 
had not for three years been sufficient to encourage the 
raising of crops, and the consequent disappearance of 
water in most of the brooks, prevented, no doubt, this 
subaquatic tree from assuming its proper character in 
a more favourable soil. At first view it would be taken 
for the ordinary species, spreading out the same ser- 
pentine picturesque limbs, occasionally denuded of their 
old coat of bark, and producing the same wide and 
gigantic trunk, but a glance at the leaves no less than 
the fruit, would remind the eastern traveller that he 
sojourned in a new region of vegetation, and objects 
apparently the most familiar he met around him, asso- 
ciate them as he would, were still wholly strangers. 
The leaves not fully expanded were about 4 inches 
wide and the same in length, divided more than half 
