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. PLATE XII THE ORIENTAL PLANE There are two kinds of Plane tree which have come to us as strangers from foreign lands and have taken kindly to our cold climate and biting winds. These are the Oriental or Eastern Plane and the Occidental or Western Plane. The differences between them are not great, and the one which you will most easily remember is, that in the Oriental Plane the leaf stalk is green, whereas in the Occidental Plane tree it is purply red. We owe a special debt of gratitude to these Plane trees because they add beauty to so many of the dingy streets and squares in our big cities. [Illustration: PLATE XII THE ORIENTAL PLANE TREE 1. Oriental Plane Tree 2. Leaf Spray 3. Stamen Flower Balls 4. Seed Flower Balls 5. Fruit] The trunk of the Oriental Plane (1) is very smooth, and is usually ash-grey in colour; sometimes it is a very dark green. The outer layer of this trunk peels off in flakes, leaving large patches of greenish yellow, and these give the tree a curious speckled appearance. It is a tall, handsome tree, and if you look at it from a distance you see that the broad leaves group themselves into large masses with a wide space between each mass. This you can only see in a full-grown tree, and such trees are rarely met with in our dusty towns.