um height of 60 feet. Heartwood reddish brown,
sapwood lighter color. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, and
takes a fine polish. Ranges from Pennsylvania, along the Alleghanies,
to Florida and Alabama, westward through Ohio to southern Indiana and
southward through Arkansas and Louisiana to the Coast.

SWEET GUM (See Gum)

SYCAMORE

=102. Sycamore= (_Platanus occidentalis_) (Buttonwood, Button-Ball Tree,
Plane Tree, Water Beech). A large-sized tree, of rapid growth. One of
the largest deciduous trees of the United States, sometimes attaining
a height of 100 feet. It produces a timber that is moderately heavy,
quite hard, stiff, strong, and tough, usually cross-grained; of coarse
texture, difficult to split and work, shrinks moderately, but warps
and checks considerably in seasoning, but stands well, and is not
considered durable for outside work, or in contact with the soil. It
has broad medullary rays, and much of the timber has a beautiful
figure. It is used in slack cooperage, and quite extensively for
drawers, backs, and bottoms, etc., in furniture work. It is also used
for cabinet work, for tobacco boxes, crates, desks, flooring,
furniture, ox-yokes, butcher blocks, and also for finishing lumber,
where it has too long been underrated. Common and largest in the Ohio
and Mississippi Valleys, at home in nearly all parts of the eastern
United States.

=103. Sycamore= (_Platanus racemosa_). The California species,
resembling in its wood the Eastern form. Not used to any great extent.

TULIP TREE

=104. Tulip Tree= (_Liriodendron tulipifera_) (Yellow Poplar, Tulip
Wood, White Wood, Canary Wood, Poplar, Blue Poplar, White Poplar,
Hickory Poplar). A medium- to large-sized tree, does not form forests,
but is quite common, especially in the Ohio basin. Wood usually light,
but varies in weight, it is soft, tough, but not strong, of fine
texture, and yellowish color. The wood shrinks considerably, but
seasons without much injury, and works and stands extremely well.
Heartwood light yellow or greenish brown, the sapwood is thin, nearly
white, and decays rapidly. The heartwood is fairly durable when
exposed to the weather or in contact with the soil. It bends readily
when steamed, and takes stain and paint well. The mature forest-grown
tree has a long, straight, cylindrical bole, clear of branches for at
least two thirds of