The Principal Species of Wood: Their Characteristic Properties / First Edition

by Charles H. Snow

Trees over twelve inches in diameter are often hollow. [p065]

PLATE 13. SYCAMORE (Platanus occidentalis).

Quartered Sycamore Wood.

SYCAMORE. (Platanus.)

The name Sycamore applies to a maple (Acer pseudo-platanus) in Europe, to a fig-tree (Ficus sycomorus) in the Orient,[40] and to the buttonball or plane tree (Platanus) in North America. Of the plane trees (Platanus) the common or Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) is a native of Europe; the plane, buttonball, or sycamore tree (Platanus occidentalis) is a native and common tree in eastern North America; and the California plane, buttonball, or sycamore (Platanus racemosa) is a native of western North America.

Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis).

The sycamore stands for curiosity, because of its Biblical association with Zaccheus. Many European sycamores were planted by religious persons during the middle ages because of the belief that they were the trees thus referred to in the Bible.