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Iplatanus OCCibfVlttllis. Natural Order: Platanacece — Plane-Tree Family 
NE of the largest trees in American forests is the Sycamore 
9 or Buttonwood tree, which grows to a prodigious size. It is 
found most frequently on the banks of some of the large western 
rivers and on the margins of many of the smaller streams, where 
-A the trunk attains a not unusual circumference of fifty feet. 
Along the entire course of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, 
extensive forests of it abound, and no sooner does a bar of sand or an 
island make itself seen above the surface of the fickle tide, than it is 
covered as if by magic with a growth of Sycamore saplings that in a 
few years develop into might}^ trees. Its rapid growth is its chief 
recommendation, as its wood is soft and of no great utility. Its ample 
foliage makes a very desirable shade, and it thrives under circumstances 
to which manv other trees succumb. 
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YCAMORE with eglantine was spread, 
A hedge about the sides, a covering overhead. 
I KNOW a forest vast and old — 
1 A shade so deep, so darkly green, 
That morning sends her shaft of gold 
In vain to pierce its leafy screen: 
—Dry den. 
I know a brake where sleeps the fawn, 
The soft-eyed fawn, thro’ noon’s repose: 
For noon with all the calm of dawn 
Lies hushed beneath those dewy boughs. 
-Edith May. 
T 
HE rich, deep masses of the sycamore 
Hang heavy with the fullness of their prime. 
ATOISELESSLY around, 
^ ' From perch to perch, the solitary bird 
Passes; and von clear spring that, midst its herbs, 
Wells softly forth and wandering steeps the roots 
Of half the mighty forest, tells no tale 
— Hemails. 
Of all the good it does. Thou hast not left 
Thyself without a witness, in these shades, 
Of thy perfections. Grandeur, strength and grace 
Are here to speak of thee. 
— William Cullen Brycnit. 
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