384 
DECIDUOUS TREES. 
The Fern-leaved Linden, T. lacianata^ is curious on account 
of its shredded leaves. Of its habit of growth as it matures we 
cannot speak. 
All these beautiful or curious varieties may be readily grafted 
or budded on our basswood, so that persons having one or more 
trees of the latter may, without marring the general contour of the 
tree, test and compare the varied foliage of the different varieties 
of linden. 
THE PLANE-TREE. Platanus. 
The Sycamore or American Plane Tree. P. occidentalis.— 
There are but two species of the plane tree, and these differ con- 
siderably in their characters. One of them is our native sycamore 
or buttonwood, well known by its smooth and scaly gray bark, 
which, detaching itself in laminate pieces, reveals a whiter bark 
beneath, and gives the trunk and branches a spotted or spangled 
appearance. Occasionally the older bark scales entirely from some 
of the branches, leaving them nearly as white as those of the white 
birch. It is one of the largest and most rapid in growth of Ameri- 
can forest trees, and, previous to the discovery of the great trees 
of California and Oregon, its trunk was the most colossal vegeta- 
tion familiar to Americans. One has been cut measuring forty- 
seven feet in circumference ; and there was formerly a tree at J ef- 
ferson, Cayuga County, N. Y., with a hollow interior fifteen feet in 
diameter two feet from the ground 1 The enormous expansion of 
the trunk is one of its peculiarities, excee(^ing that of any other tree 
east of the Rocky Mountains. This characteristic disposes it to 
become hollow, yet to increase healthily on its trunk shell like the 
curious old chestnuts of Mount AEtna. The leaves are double the 
size, and resemble in outline those of the sugar maple, but are 
thinner, of a lighter green, have more strongly-marked ribs, and are 
rarely glossy. 
Notwithstanding the grand character of the sycamore, it is little 
esteemed of late years for decorative purposes. Aside from the 
fact that it is too large and rank a tree for small places, its diseases 
have done much to discourage its planting. The wood is subject 
