Part 45

WINTER-BUDS.--Terminal bud 1/2-1 inch long, obtuse, flattish, dark red, covered with a glaucous bloom.

BARK.--Twigs smooth, lustrous, reddish, becoming brownish, and at length gray; ashy gray, thin and scaly on young trunks, becoming thick, brownish, and deeply furrowed with age.

WOOD.--Light, soft, brittle, weak, easily worked, light yellow or brown, with thin, cream-white sapwood.

DISTRIBUTION.--Lower Peninsula south of the Grand River. Formerly common, but becoming rare.

HABITAT.--Prefers deep, rich, rather moist soil, but adapts itself readily to any good, light soil.

NOTES.--Difficult to transplant, but rapid of growth when once established. Not disfigured by insect enemies. Good for ornamental planting.

1. Winter twig, × 1. 2. Portion of twig, enlarged. 3. Leaves, × 1/2. 4. Staminate flowering branchlet, × 1/2. 5. Staminate flower, enlarged. 6. Pistillate flowering branchlet, × 1/2. 7. Pistillate flower, enlarged. 8. Fruit, × 1/2.]

+LAURACEAE+

+Sassafras+

Sassafras variifolium (Salisb.) Ktse. [Sassafras sassafras (L.) Karst.] [Sassafras officinale Nees & Eberm.]

HABIT.--Usually a large shrub, but often a small tree 20-40 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 10-20 inches; stout, often contorted branches and a bushy spray form a flat, rather open crown.

LEAVES.--Alternate, simple, 3-6 inches long, 2-4 inches broad; oval to oblong or obovate; entire or 1-3-lobed with deep, broad sinuses and finger-like lobes; thin; dull dark green above, paler beneath; petioles slender, about 1 inch long.

FLOWERS.--May, with the leaves; dioecious; greenish yellow; on slender pedicels, in loose, drooping, few-flowered racemes 2 inches long; calyx deeply 6-lobed, yellow-green; corolla 0; stamens of staminate flower 9, in 3 rows, of pistillate flower 6, in 1 row; ovary 1-celled.

FRUIT.--September-October; an oblong-globose, lustrous, dark blue berry, 3/8 inch long, surrounded at the base by the scarlet calyx, borne on club-shaped, bright red pedicels.

WINTER-BUDS.--Terminal buds 1/3 inch long, ovoid, acute, greenish, soft-pubescent, flower-bearing; lateral buds much smaller, sterile or leaf-bearing. Aromatic.

BARK.--Twigs glabrous, lustrous, yellow-green, spicy-aromatic, becoming red-brown and shallowly fissured when 2-3 years old; thick, dark red-brown and deeply and irregularly fissured into firm, flat ridges on old trunks.

WOOD.--Soft, weak, brittle, coarse-grained, very durable in the soil, aromatic, dull orange-brown, with thin, light yellow sapwood.

DISTRIBUTION.--Southern portion of Lower Peninsula as far north as Grayling.

HABITAT.--Prefers well-drained, stony or sandy soil; woods; abandoned fields; peaty swamps.

NOTES.--Rapid of growth. Suckers freely. Difficult to transplant. Propagated easily from seed.

1. Winter twig, × 1. 2. Portion of twig, side view, × 1. 3. Vertical section of twig, summer bud and leaf petiole, enlarged. 4. Leaf, × 3/8. 5. Flowering branchlet, × 1/2. 6. Staminate flower, enlarged. 7. Pistillate flower, enlarged. 8. Fruit, × 3/8. 9. Achene, enlarged.]

+PLATANACEAE+

+Sycamore. Button-wood. Buttonball-tree+

Platanus occidentalis L.

HABIT.--A large tree 70-100 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 3-8 feet; commonly dividing near the ground into several large secondary trunks, forming a broad, open, irregular crown of massive, spreading branches.

LEAVES.--Alternate, simple, 5-10 inches long and broad; broadly ovate in outline; more or less 3-5-lobed by broad, shallow sinuses, the lobes sinuate-toothed; thin and firm; bright green above, paler beneath, glabrous both sides; petioles stout, puberulous, 1-2 inches long.

FLOWERS.--May, with the leaves; monoecious; borne in dense heads; the staminate dark red, on short, axillary peduncles; the pistillate greenish, on long, slender, terminal peduncles; sepals 3-6, minute; petals 3-6, minute; stamens 3-6, usually 4; styles long, incurved, red.

FRUIT.--October, persistent on the limbs through the winter; brown heads about 1 inch in diameter, on slender, glabrous stems 3-6 inches long.