Sycamore
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Sycamore. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the Acer pseudo-platanus, an umbrageous tree, 40 to 60 feet high; with spreading branches; large, five-lobed, coarsely and unequally serrate leaves, glaucous and downy on the veins beneath; pendulous racemes of greenish flowers, and glabrous fruit furnished with two long, membranous wings. It flowers in May and June. The wood is used for bowls, trenchers, and other turnery. The sap is sacchariferous. It grows wild in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Western Asia. It is a hardy tree, flourishing in spite of high winds or sea spray. When the leaves first appear (in April) they are covered with a clammy juice containing about one part in 11 of sugar, attractive to insects, by which they are perforated and disfigured. The name is also applied to the plane tree or buttonwood of America, and the fig mulberry in the countries of Egypt and Syria. In entomology, a European night moth, Acronycta aceris, so called because the caterpillar-which, when alarmed, rolls itself up like a millepede-feeds chiefly on the sycamore, though also on the horse chestnut and the oak.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
sik'a-mor, a massive American forest tree. Also known as buttonwood, buttonball, and American plane-tree. The name sycamore is applied also to a British maple and a spreading Egyptian fig tree. There are several sycamores in North America , including those of the Pacific coast and Mexico. The sycamore of eastern North America is a magnificent tree, the tallest deciduous tree in our forests. It grows from 60 to 170 feet in height. The creamy, satiny bark of the branches when without leaves and the mass of wide leaves when in foliage render it a handsome tree in all seasons. Small, greenish flowers in close globular heads are followed by similar heads of fruit that hang all winter. Owing to his great height, and also in compliment to his bearing, the Honorable Daniel Voorhees of Indiana was called the "Tall Sycamore of the Wabash."