ARBORELUM NOTES. 121 
PLATANACE AS. 
squares and parks of London. In Berkeley square aoe 
in particular, there are very fine trees of it; and 
it is of more rapid growth than the Oriental and 
quite ashardy. The leaves certainly agree very 
closely with those of Platanus occidentalis judging 
not only from figures but from dried specimens 
of the American species. But when George 
Bentham was here and inspected our trees in 18 , 
he told me that the Plane of the London squares 
is not the American species, Platanus occidentalis, 
for which it is commonly taken, but is an Asiatic 
species the Platanus acerifolia of Willdenow, more 
related to the Oriental, of which it is perhaps a 
variety. The clearest distinction he remarked is 
to be found in the balls or heads of fruit. These 
in Platanus orientalis, are very rough (echinate) all 
over, and almost prickly, from the permanent hard 
projecting beaks of the seed vessels. In the 
occidentalis the surface of these balls is much 
smoother, without projecting points. This 
character is very distinctly seen in Michaux’s 
Meure, (Sylva v. 1, pl. 63.) Our Plane trees of 
the sort in question, bear fruit much more sparing- 
ly than the Oriental; but the fruit balls which I 
have observed on the largest tree, certainly 
resemble those of the Oriental and mest of the 
American kind. vot 
