will serve to identify it at any season—the pale yellow patches on the trunk of the Plane caused by its constant shedding of flakes of bark. In the autumn, too, there is a striking contrast between the winged samaras of Acer and the ball-fruits of Platanus. Acer, again, has the leaves opposite, whilst in Platanus they are alternate.
The Planes are lofty trees (sixty to eighty feet), with thick cylindrical trunks, wide-spreading branches and abundant foliage. The leaves are five-lobed, with a few coarse teeth, and smooth surface. The flowers of both sexes are in globular clusters and borne on the same tree, but on separate branches. The male flowers have a perianth of four narrow leaves alternating with the stamens. The female flowers consist of a one-seeded ovary with a curved style, one side of which is stigmatic. Flowers April and May.
P. occidentalis, the Western Plane, is very similar, but its leaves have red stalks, and are less deeply lobed and toothed; its bark scales less.
Platanus is the old Greek name for the Plane-tree, and is probably derived from Platos, breadth, in allusion to the broad leaves or the ample shade afforded by its branches.
The Birch (Betula alba).
The most graceful of our native trees is the White or Silver
Birch. It is the very antipodes among trees of the solid
unbending oak. The slim stem, scarcely ever a foot in
diameter, tapers away almost to nothing at a height of fifty or
sixty feet. This is at full maturity at forty or fifty years;
thereafter it makes little progress, and it is believed not to reach
far beyond its hundredth year. It has the singular reputation for
producing a bark that is more enduring than its timber. In spite
of its effeminate grace it is a most hardy tree, and stands alone
on the bleakest hillsides, and is the only tree that endures the
