Trees, Shown to the Children

There is a good deal of confusion in people’s minds as to the right name for this familiar tree. Sycamore is not an English word, but is made from a Greek word meaning fig or mulberry. The tree has been so called because many years ago people believed that it was a relation of the fig tree which grows so abundantly by the roadside in Palestine. The leaves are a little alike, but there is no real resemblance between our English Great Maple and the Eastern Sycamore: the name has been given by mistake.

Another mistaken name given to this tree is Plane tree. The Great Maple is only a mock Plane tree or false Plane tree; it is not even a relation of the real Plane any more than it is a relation of the Fig or Sycamore. But mistakes even in names are very difficult to correct, and in many places, particularly in Scotland, you will find that Sycamore (1) or Plane tree is the name usually given to the Great Maple.

It is a large heavy tree, with a great central trunk covered with a gnarled bark which peels off in flakes, leaving patches of different shades. From every side of this central trunk there grow stout branches covered with masses of thick foliage, the thickest and heaviest foliage of any British tree.

If you look at the Sycamore tree as it stands in an open field, or in a hedgerow, with grass growing close to its very trunk, I think what will strike you most is how evenly it has grown all round. There are so many trees that grow all to one side if they are much exposed to a cold wind. Look at the Beech, or the Hawthorn, or the Elm on the crest of a ridge, and you will at once know from which direction the wind blows strongest and coldest, by seeing how the tree puts out all its best branches on the sheltered side. But the Sycamore tree is indifferent to cold, or even to the salt sea winds; it sends out its branches equally on every side, and there is always a thick roof of leaves at the top.

The Sycamore tree prefers a dry soil, in which it grows very quickly; and it will not die if transplanted.

In early spring the twigs bear many large fat buds (3), which are covered with soft downy pink scales. The Horse Chestnut is the only other tree which bears such large buds, but they are dark and very sticky.

In country places the children call the largest buds at the end of the Sycamore twig “cocks,” and the smaller buds which grow along the sides they call “hens.” When these buds open early in May you see how beautifully the leaves are folded fan-ways inside. Each leaf (2) is shaped like a large hand with five bluntly-pointed fingers; the edges are coarsely toothed, and the leaf is dark green above and a paler green underneath. They grow on long stalks, which are a reddish pink colour so long as the leaves are young, and each stalk is scooped into a hollow at the end, so that it may fit closely to the twig.

These leaves are not placed alternately on opposite sides of the branch, as in the Beech or Elm: they grow in clumps, or bouquets, and each pair of leaves is placed cross-ways to the pair above. Those that come out first have long stalks and are the largest; then the second pair is smaller, and the third pair smaller still, till the bouquet is finished with two tiny leaves in the centre.

Notice that the leaves of the Sycamore are often marked with sticky drops. By old writers these drops are called honey-dew. It is believed that the sap of the Sycamore is sugary, and some of this sugary juice escapes through the leaf pores to the surface. These handsome leaves are often spotted with small black dots, which are caused by a tiny plant. This plant makes its home on the Sycamore leaf, and unknowingly disfigures its kind host.

Before the leaves are quite out the flowers appear. They grow in drooping spikes (4), or large tassels of a pale yellowish green colour. Each tassel is made up of many separate flowers, and most of these flowers have a calyx with five to twelve narrow strap-shaped sepals, and a corolla of the same number of yellow-green petals. There is also a ring of slender stamens standing round a flat green cushion or disc. In the centre sits the seed-vessel, which has two curved horns at the top. But in the flower tassel you may also find flowers in which some of the parts are awanting: one flower will have stamens, but no seed-vessel, and its neighbour will have a seed-vessel and no stamens, while in a third the petals may be awanting. You must examine each flower till you find one which is perfect. These Sycamore flowers contain much honey, nearly as much as those of the Lime tree; and the bees are glad to hover round the tree flowers, which blossom long before those in the meadow are open.

After the flowers are withered the seed (5) develops wings like the Ash and the Elm. But these wings are very different from those of any other tree. They are shaped like the letter U, with the two seeds at the bottom of the letter where it joins the stalk. Each seed is like a small pea, and is snugly packed in a horny case lined with the softest and silkiest down. When it is ripe the wind blows the winged seeds from the tree and carries them a long way. They fall into the ground, where the horny case prevents the young seed from rotting during the cold winter months before it is time for it to begin to sprout. Then when spring comes the baby seed bursts its covering and sends up two tiny green ribbon leaves which are the beginning of a new Sycamore tree. The wings of the Sycamore seed are beautifully tinged with pink.

The wood of the Sycamore or Great Maple is white and very soft, but it is closely grained. Sometimes you see big knobs on the tree trunk where a branch has died or been broken off, and cabinet-makers prize these knobs, as the wood is very curiously marked with beautiful veins and streaks. Maple wood will polish as smooth as satin, and the backs of violins are often made of it. In old books we read of table-tops that were made of curiously marked pieces of Maple, and it is told that more than eight hundred pounds was given for one of these Maple tables.

In Scotland the Sycamore tree was often called the dool tree, or tree of mourning, because the nobles used to hang disobedient servants or vanquished foes on its strong branches; and at Cassilis, in Ayrshire, there is a Sycamore tree which is well known to have been used for this cruel purpose.