1885.] HISTORICAL NOTICE OF CELEBRATED TREES. 280 



Sicilian ones, yet there are some enormous ones in this country. 

 That at Hitchani Priory, in Hertfordshire, had in 1789 a circum- 

 ference of more than 14 yards (or 42 feet) at 5 feet from tlie 

 ground ; and though the internal part was decayed and hollowed by 

 time, the external part and the leaves were vigorous. Grose found 

 four chestnuts in the garden at Great Crawford Park, Dorset, .'3 7 feet 

 in circumference, and though shattered and decayed, it still bore 

 good crops of fruit. The great chestnut at Tortworth in Gloucester- 

 shire, and which is a signal boundary to the Manor of Tamworth, 

 has however had dimensions as well as age assigned it belonging to 

 few other English trees. In 1720, it measured 51 feet in diameter 

 at 6 feet from the ground. Lysons, however, by later measurement, 

 in 1791, made it out to be only 45 feet 3 inches. It bore fruit 

 abundantly in 1788. In the reign of Stephen, who ascended the 

 throne in 1135, it was already remarkable for its size. But even 

 this tree, which has probably long since celebrated its thousandtli 

 anniversary, does not equal the smallest of the three Sicilian chestnuts. 



Oriental Plane. 



The oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) is one of the largest trees 

 of temperate climes. Pliny speaks of one in Lycia whose trunk, 

 hollowed by age, pi-esented a cavity 81 feet in circumference, in 

 which the Consul Licinius Mutianus slept with eighteen persons of 

 his suite ; and Olivier, Dr. Walsh, and other modern travellers 

 describe one in the valley of Bujukdereh, three leagues from Con- 

 stantinople, which is 90 feet high, and with a stem 150 feet in 

 circumference. The trunk is hollow within to the level of the soil ; 

 the cavity is 80 feet in circumference, and occupies a space of 500 

 square feet. Vautier mentions one in Tiresia, near Pontus, which 

 was 2 feet in diameter. There are no certain means of determinino- 

 the age of these trees ; but Hunter mentions, in Evelyn's Sylva, that 

 an oriental plane, planted in iSTorfolk in 1744, was at the age of 

 31 years 7 feet 9 inches in circumference at 1;^ feet above the 

 ground, which yields an average annual increase of 1 lines ; and 

 this calculation applied to the tree at Bujukdereh would make it 

 150 years old, although if we consider that young trees increase, 

 much more rapidly than old ones, we might with safety assume it 

 at between two and three times that age, or at least 400 years old. 

 This is on the supposition that the trunk consists of a single stem, 

 but the recent observations of ]Mr. Webb leave little doubt but this 

 monster trunk is formed by the junction of several original trees 

 planted in close proximity. Indeed, all along the shores of the 

 Bosphorus, there are many groups of younger planes, which for their 

 shade have been designedly planted in a small circle, and their trunks 



