THE PLANE-TREE FAMILY. 381 



soil is gravelly, not uncommon, but doubtfully wild. Staly bridge 

 Brushes ; Agecroft hills ; Cheadle. Fl. April. 

 E. B. xxviii. 1909. 

 The Salieacece grown in gardens and shrubberies comprise the " weeping 

 willow," or Salix Babylonica ; the golden osier, or Salix vltellina, (E. B. xx. 

 1389.) and the green-leaved osier, or Salix rubra, (E. B. xvi. 1115.) which last is 

 probabh' not distinct from the S. monandra. In the Botanic Gardens there are a 

 few others, such as the Salix Andersoniava, Salix Forhyana, and -S'. Doniana, 

 and cuiions cultivators are often fond of the little Salix repens, which in rich 

 soils becomes more erect, and with branches often three to four feet long. The 

 exotic poplars comprise the Lombardy or Italian — Populus fastigidta — that tall, 

 well-known, and spire-like tree which is commonly spoken of as the poplar, — the 

 only spire-like tree that casts its leaves in autumn, and the vertical branches of 

 which rarely ever touch either one another or any neighbour ; and the balsam, 

 or Canada poplar — Populus balsamifera — distinguished by its enormous triangular 

 leaves, and the delicious balsamic fragrance which it exhales while the buds are 

 opening. The Lombardy poplars in our neighbourhood are all males, and the 

 balsam poplars all females. The catkins of the latter, filled with white cotton — 

 the limit of the tree's efforts to produce seeds — hang upon the branches, and strew 

 the ground, when they drop off, in immense quantities. The petioles are not 

 flattened laterally, like those of the English poplars, so that the leaves do not 

 tremble. Both species ai'e exceedingly common, the latter especially in suburban 

 gardens. 



CXIX.— THE PLANE-TREE FAMILY. Platanacem. 



The single genus Platanus, containing perhaps half-a-dozen species, 

 is the whole that this family is at present known to consist of. They 

 are noble timber- trees, natives of the western parts of Asia, Barbary, 

 and North America, and are extensively cultivated, in climates that 

 suit them, for the sake of their grand appearance, and their ample and 

 generous shade. 



Broad-leaved i^lane trees, in long colonnades, 



O'erarch delightful walks. 



Near Manchester we have onlj' one kind, the Platanus occidentalis, 

 and that neither frequently nor of size and stature such as it reaches 

 in the southern counties. The leaves are, in outline, like those of the 

 sycamore, with which tree uninstructed gardeners often confound it, 

 but the downy petioles, and scarious and sheathing stipules keep it 

 abundantly distinct. The leaves of the plane are also of much firmer 

 texture, hard, thick, and almost leathery. The flowers grow in globular 

 and pendulous catkins, not unlike those of the water-burr, or Spar- 



