From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Plane \Plane\, n. [F., fr. L. platanus, Gr. ?, fr. ? broad; --
so called on account of its broad leaves and spreading form.
See Place, and cf. Platane, Plantain the tree.] (Bot.)
Any tree of the genus Platanus.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) is a native
of Asia. It rises with a straight, smooth, branching
stem to a great height, with palmated leaves, and long
pendulous peduncles, sustaining several heads of small
close-sitting flowers. The seeds are downy, and
collected into round, rough, hard balls. The Occidental
plane (Platanus occidentalis), which grows to a great
height, is a native of North America, where it is
popularly called sycamore, buttonwood, and
buttonball, names also applied to the California
species (Platanus racemosa).
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Sycamore \Syc"a*more\, n. [L. sycomorus, Gr. ? the fig mulberry;
? a fig + ? the black mulberry; or perhaps of Semitic origin:
cf. F. sycomore. Cf. Mulberry.] (Bot.)
(a) A large tree (Ficus Sycomorus) allied to the common
fig. It is found in Egypt and Syria, and is the sycamore,
or sycamine, of Scripture.
(b) The American plane tree, or buttonwood.
(c) A large European species of maple ({Acer
Pseudo-Platanus}). [Written sometimes sycomore.]
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Buttonwood \But"ton*wood`\, n. (Bot.)
The Platanus occidentalis, or American plane tree, a large
tree, producing rough balls, from which it is named; --
called also buttonball tree, and, in some parts of the
United States, sycamore. The California buttonwood is
Platanus racemosa.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
sycamore
n 1: variably colored and sometimes variegated hard tough
elastic wood of a sycamore tree [syn: sycamore,
lacewood]
2: any of several trees of the genus Platanus having thin pale
bark that scales off in small plates and lobed leaves and
ball-shaped heads of fruits [syn: plane tree, sycamore,
platan]
3: Eurasian maple tree with pale grey bark that peels in flakes
like that of a sycamore tree; leaves with five ovate lobes
yellow in autumn [syn: sycamore, great maple, {scottish
maple}, Acer pseudoplatanus]
4: thick-branched wide-spreading tree of Africa and adjacent
southwestern Asia often buttressed with branches rising from
near the ground; produces cluster of edible but inferior figs
on short leafless twigs; the biblical sycamore [syn:
sycamore, sycamore fig, mulberry fig, {Ficus
sycomorus}]