PLANE I S3 



from green to reddish-brown. They are in form, as we 

 have already pointed out, while dwelling on those of the 

 Sycamore, double samaras. 



PLANE (Platanus Orientalis) 



The Plane is not a native of these Isles, being only 

 mentioned by the earlier herbalists as a great rarity ' but 

 it has now been planted so widely, and its curious spherical 

 fruits, hanging on the boughs months after the leaves 

 have disappeared, are so well known, that it claims from 

 us passing notice and an illustration, Plate XXIII. 



Botanically it is the Platanus orientalis. The generic 

 name, coming to us through the Latin, is Greek in its origin 

 and signifies round, some will tell us from the rounded 

 form of the leaf, some from the rounded mass made by the 

 tree itself, others from the round fruits. The tree is 

 mentioned by both Spenser and Milton, and by them called 

 the platane. 



The plane is a tree of much gracefulness of form. IVlant, 

 we see, calls it " the beauteous plane," and it can scarcely 

 be said to be done justice to by those who see in it no more 

 than a rounded mass. It has a curious habit of throwing 

 off its bark in large flakes that adds to its picturesque 

 effect. In the Bible authorised in the reign of King James 

 we find a reference in Genesis xxx. 37, to the chestnut, but 



' As, for instance, by Turner, in his Herbal of 1568. " I have seene," 

 he says, " two very young trees in England, which were called there Playn 

 trees, whose leves in all poyntes were lyke vnto the leves of the Italian 

 Playn tre. And it is doubtles that these two tres were either brought out 

 of Italy, or of som farre countre beyond Italy, wherevnto the freres, monkes 

 and chanoners went a pilgrimage." 



