BUTTONWOOD OR SYCAMORE. 
35 
cies are least liable to injury from the continued presence of water, and by 
their position they are exposed to have their basis every year inundated 
by the swelling of the rivers. In these situations, the Buttonwood is con- 
stantly found to be the loftiést and largest tree of the United States. Often, 
with a trunk of several feet in diameter, it begins to ramify at the height 
of 60 or 70 feet, near the summit of the other trees ; and often the base 
divides itself into several trunks equally vigorous and superior in diameter 
to all the surrounding trees. 
On a little island in the Ohio, 15 miles above the mouth of the Musk- 
ingum, my father measured a Buttonwood which, at 5 feet from the ground^ 
was 40 feet and 4 inches in circumference, and consequently more than 13 
feet in diameter. Twenty years before, General Washington had mea- 
sured the same tree, and found it to be of nearly the same size. 
In 1802, in a journey through the Western States, I found on the right 
bank of the Ohio, 36 miles from Marietta, a Buttonwood whose base was 
swollen in an extraordinary manner : my travelling companion and myself 
measured it, and at 4 feet from the ground we found it to be 47 feet in 
circumference; This tree, which still exhibited the appearance of vigorous 
vegetation, ramified at 20 feet from the ground. A Buttonwood of equal 
size is mentioned as existing in Genesee. The astonishing dimensions of 
these trees recall the famous Plane Tree of Lycia spoken of by Pliny, 
whose trunk, hollowed by time, afforded a retreat for the night to the 
Roman Consul Licinius Mutianus, with eighteen persons of his retinue. 
The interior of this grotto was 75 feet in circumference, and the summit of 
the tree resembled a small forest. 
The most striking resemblance, in the majesty of their form and in the 
enormous size of their trunk, thus appears to exist between the only two 
species of Plane that have hitherto been discovered. The American species 
is generally thought, in Europe, to possess a richer foliage, and to afford a 
deeper shade than the Asiatic plane: its lèaves are of a beautiful green, 
alternate, from 5 to 10 inches broad, less deeply lobed, and formed with 
more open angles than those of the Plane of the Eastern Continent. In the 
spring, the lower surface of these leaves is covered with a thick down, 
which disappears towards summer. In certain districts where this tree is 
very abundant, its vicinity is a source of alarm to the inhabitants : they 
believe that the fine down from its leaves, floating in the air, produces an 
irritation of the lungs and a disposition to consumption. This apprehen- 
sion I consider as a popular error; for the slightest zephyr suffices to waft 
to a distance, and to disperse in the airy waste this light and impalpable 
substance. 
The sexes are separate on the Buttonwood, but the male and female 
flowers are attached to the same peduncle, instead of being placed on dif- 
ferent branches. The flowers are in the form of small balls : the fertile 
