plant a resemblance to a black birch in miniature. The roots are somewhat matted together, and extend to some distance.

The leaves are from three to six fourths of an inch in length, and usually less than half an inch wide, wedge-lance-shaped, with a few serratures towards the extremity, which is commonly a little pointed; downy on the veins beneath, and sprinkled with minute, yellow, resinous dots on both surfaces.

Towards the end of summer, the next year's aments are formed in the axils of the upper leaves, in the shape of short, ovoid, pointed, scaly buds. The male and female flowers are on separate plants. The male are in catkins an inch or more long, in twos or threes at the end of the branches. They are made up of heart-shaped, purple scales, loosely arranged on an axis. Each scale rests on a short footstalk, is striated within, has a membranous border, and is set, towards the base without, with numerous, amber-colored resinous dots. Stamens about four, at the base of the scale; the anthers are short, large, opening with four valves.

The fertile flowers are in ovoid catkins about a line in length, imbricate with triangular scales, from behind which appear the purple, tapering, thread-like, bifid stigmas. When mature, the compound fruit is in short, cylindrical aments three or four lines long and three wide, sometimes solitary, but commonly in groups of two to six at the end of a short branch. It is made up of ovaries surmounted by the withering styles and compressed between two swollen, fleshy, three-sided, pointed scales, abundantly sprinkled with yellow resinous dots.

When crushed, the leaves feel somewhat resinous, and exhale a strong, penetrating, rather unpleasant odor. They are often placed in drawers for the purpose of keeping out moths.

The young buds, Dr. Richardson says, are used by the Indians in Canada, to dye their porcupine's quills. This plant is found in Labrador and Newfoundland, and as far as Fort Norman on the Mackenzie River. It is also found in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Sp. 2. THE BAY BERRY. WAX MYRTLE. Myrica cerifera. L.

Figured in Bigelow's American Medical Botany, III, Plate 43.

This is a crooked shrub, found growing in interrupted, miniature forests, in every variety of situation and soil; from dry, rocky hills to sandy plains and the borders of marshes. It is from two to six or seven feet high, very irregular, rarely erect, giving off crooked or angled, rough branches, in bunches of three or four. The bark is brownish gray, with clouds of a lighter hue, dotted with round, or oblong, horizontal, white dots. The leaves are irregularly scattered, often crowded or tufted, nearly sessile, obovate, lance-shaped, abruptly pointed, wedgeshaped at base, wavy, entire or with a few serratures, sometimes revolute on the edge, and whiter and sprinkled with yellowish dots beneath. The barren flowers, which expand with the leaves in May, are in stiff, erect catkins, less than an inch long, on the sides of the last year's branches. The scales are roundish or rhomboidal, somewhat loosely arranged, and contain each three or four stamens, often partially united by twos, and surmounted by anthers divided to their base. The catkins of the fertile flowers, which are on a different plant, are much smaller, erect, made up of imbricated, oval, pointed scales, containing an ovary surmounted by two prominent, awl-shaped stigmas. On each matured ament are from four to nine, dry, waxy berries or drupes, on very short footstalks. They are at first green, afterwards blackish, and finally white, consisting of a stone covered with black grains invested with wax. The fruit-stalks continue to the second or third year, twelve or more arranged spirally on a shoot. The berries, leaves and recent shoots are fragrant with a balsamic odor which seems to come from the minute, transparent, yellow dots with which the recent shoots and under surface of the leaves are sprinkled. The roots are large and somewhat spreading.

The wax is obtained by boiling the berries in water. It rises to the surface and hardens on cooling. About one third part of the weight of the berries consists of wax. In Nova Scotia, this wax is used extensively, instead of tallow, or mixed with

tallow, to make candles. It has sometimes, also, been mixed with beeswax for the same purpose. Candles made of it diffuse a very agreeable perfume, but give a less brilliant light than those made entirely of animal substance. The wax of the bay berry is also made into hard soap with the ley of wood ashes, lime, and common salt; one pound of wax being sufficient for ten pounds of soap, and taking the place of the animal or vegetable oils used in the manufacture of common soaps. A decoction of the root has been sometimes used as a remedy for dysentery.

VI. 2. THE LIQUIDAMBER.

COMPTONIA. BANKS.

Low shrubs with fragrant leaves, fern-like, long, slender, narrow, and deeply cut on both sides into roundish lobes, and globular, compound, bristly, bur-like fruits, with roundish, smooth nuts. There is a single species:

THE SWEET FERN. Comptonia asplenifolia. Aiton.

A fragrant, round-headed bush, about two feet high, abounding on hill sides and in the openings in woods. It has the appearance of a miniature tree. The recent shoots are green or of a yellowish or reddish brown, somewhat downy, and sprinkled, as are the leaves and stipules on both surfaces, and the older branches towards the extremities, with minute, yellow, shining, resinous dots. The branches of a year's growth are yellowish brown, with a polished, shining surface, somewhat hairy. The lower ones curve down and then upwards, forming an inverted arch. The older ones are reddish purple or coppery brown, rather rough, and closely dotted with raised, brown dots. The roots are long and creeping, and throw up numerous stems.

The leaves are nearly sessile, very long and narrow, from one to six inches long, and less than one inch wide, pointed, cut into large, obtuse-angled teeth, by indentations reaching nearly to the mid-rib, dark green, impressed at the veins above, paler and downy on the mid-rib and veins beneath; with the margin somewhat reflexed. The stipules are half an inch long, lanceolate, acuminate, auriculate, or half-arrow-shaped, and often

accompanied by an additional pair of smaller stipules below. The buds are small and roundish.

The barren aments are crowded towards the ends of the branches, in the axil of the sometimes persistent leaves of the last year. They are erect, about half an inch long, composed of brownish, hairy, pointed, kidney-shaped scales, closely investing each other in spiral lines.

The fertile aments are globular and bur-like, less than an inch in diameter, with a few ovate, smooth, shining, dark brown nuts, set among rough, narrow, awl-shaped, bristly scales.

The whole plant gives out a pleasant, spicy odor. This is stronger and somewhat different when the leaves are crushed. They are a common ingredient in diet drinks, and an infusion is a popular remedy for dysentery.

Dr. Richardson found the sweet fern in New Brunswick and in Canada as far as the Saskatchawan. It occurs abundantly throughout the New England and Middle States, and on the mountains of Carolina and Georgia.

FAMILY VII. THE PLANE TREE FAMILY. PLATANACEÆ. LINDLEY.

The family of the plane trees comprehends some of the loftiest and largest deciduous trees of the northern temperate zone. They are distinguished for their broad leaves, globular inflorescence and fruit, and the absence of milk in leaves, fruit, wood and bark. In some parts of the old continent, they are valued for their timber, and have been, from ancient times, most highly esteemed for their shade. The leaf-buds are enclosed in the leaf-stalk, whence the planes are necessarily deciduous, the expansion of the buds forcing the previous leaves from their articulation. The layers of bark have little mutual adherence, and are deficient in toughness and extensibility; the outer layers are therefore liable to fall off in large irregular patches. The roots are long and running. By some writers the plane

trees are considered as belonging to the Bread Fruit Family, with which they have many points of resemblance.

The planes are natives of the Levant, Barbary, and North America. The bark has some astringency, the leaves have been used in fomentations, and were formerly considered an antidote to the bite of serpents.

THE PLANE TREE. PLATANUS. L.

This is a genus, the only one of the family, of lofty trees, with broad, spreading branches, and large leaves, forming a dense foliage. The young shoots, leaves, and stipules are thickly covered with fine down, which, as they expand, falls off, and floating in the atmosphere, is liable to be inhaled by persons in their vicinity. This produces a disagreeable cough, sometimes of considerable duration; and the circumstance forms a strong objection to planting these trees in the neighborhood of dwellinghouses.

Two species, the Occidental Plane, and the Californian, are found within the territory of the United States, a third, the Oriental, is generally diffused on the eastern continent, and two others, possibly varieties of this, occur in the extreme east. The only one native to Massachusetts is

THE BUTTONWOOD TREE. Plátanus occidentalis. L.

Figured in Michaux, Sylva, II, Plate 63; in Catesby's Carolina, Plate 56. The tree is represented, as seen in winter, in Loudon, Arb., VIII, Plate 289. The leaves are figured, together with the beautiful Plane Tree Moth, whose caterpillar lives on them, by Abbott, II, Plate 55; and by Audubon, with the Summer Duck; Birds of America, III, Plate 206.

At a place called Vaucluse, some miles from Newport, on the island of Rhode Island, on an estate formerly belonging to Samuel Elam, a man of taste and of humanity, there was standing, in September, 1839, on the side of a small stream, a button wood tree, which measured at one foot from the surface of the ground, twenty-four feet four inches. The thickness of the tree and the declivity of the bank, made the ground two feet and a half higher on one side than on the other, so that this measure was