756 



PLATANUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



PLATYCODON. 



winter. In our warmest gardens P. 

 Lyalli is hardy without a wall, but seldom 

 flowers so well in the open. It needs a 

 warm, well-drained soil and rich feeding, 

 and is safest screened from the morning 

 sun. Increase by layers and cuttings. 

 P. La?npe72i is also grown against walls, 

 where it bears a profusion of fragrant, 

 creamy-white flowers, but it is tender, 

 and probably now confined to collections. 

 P. bettilinus is also rare, but appears 

 hardier than the last, and has grown 

 very rapidly to a height of 20 feet at 

 Castlewellan. It makes a graceful, birch- 

 like tree of 50 to 60 feet in New Zealand, 

 with small leaves and clusters of whitish 

 flowers. 



PLATANUS (PAr;/^).— Stately sum- 

 mer-leafing trees of the East and America, 

 of rapid and vigorous growth and high 

 value in the warmer parts of our islands 

 as shade, lawn, or avenue trees ; thriving 

 too in the centre even of smoke-polluted 

 cities, as in many of the squares in west 

 and central London, and not merely 

 existing, as most trees do in such condi- 

 tion, but attaining- much beauty of form 

 and dignity there, as in Berkeley Square 

 and Lincoln's Inn Fields. Here the 

 great trees, getting out of the gardeners' 

 way, or any attack of pruners or self- 

 appointed tree-architects, assume their 

 true and natural form, and are very fine 

 whether in summer or winter. Where 

 the Plane is used in the streets of London, 

 however (as on the Thames Embankment), 

 the costly and wasteful labour of pruning 

 the trees to one ugly shape is carried out. 

 The Planes are easily increased by cut- 

 tings and layers, but planters should in 

 all cases avoid them, as they cannot 

 expect from such beginnings the fine 

 rapid, natural growth and true form of 

 the tree. The Plane which thrives best 

 in London, or what is often called the 

 London Plane, is not (as it used to be 

 thought) the American or Western Plane, 

 but the Eastern Plane or one of its forms 

 of which the accepted name is now aceri- 

 folia, a name with many synonyms. The 

 true Western Plane, P. occidc?italis., is 

 rarely seen in Europe outside of botanical 

 gardens, and, when it is, it has little of 

 the beautiful vigour of the Oriental Plane 

 in our country. The name Orientalis is 

 still kept up for a deeply cut leaved form 

 of Plane, but it is not really distinct as a 

 species from the London Plane. P. 

 cuneafa is an Eastern species with deeply 

 cut leaves, but it may be taken for all 

 planting ends that the vigorous London 

 Plane is the Eastern Plane, no matter by 

 what name it is called. The Plane, being 



a tree of vast distribution in the East, 

 accounts for the origin and distribution of 

 the various forms, mainly differing in the 

 shape and lobing of the leaves. While 

 the tree attains its greatest growth in 

 southern Italy and south-eastern Europe 

 generally, it is a noble tree in the southern 

 parts of England, attaining its best size, 

 height, and form in good valley soils, and 

 there are many fine examples of it in the 

 Thames Valley. There is a peculiarity 

 of the bark in scaling off in large irregular 

 patches, which leads to rather a striking 

 effect, and is in no way harmful to the 

 tree. The Greeks and Romans used it 

 much as a shade tree near their public 

 buildings, and from all recorded time it 

 has been much planted in Persia. As 



Platanus orientalis. 



yet this tree has been little used in our 

 woodlands, though it certainly deserves a 

 place in them, especially in those on the 

 alluvial soils. 



PLATYCODON {Broad Bell-flower).— 

 Handsome perennials, allied to the Bell- 

 flowers. P. grandiflora is a handsome 

 Siberian perennial, hardy in light dry 

 soils, but impatient of damp and un- 

 drained situations, where its thick fleshy 

 roots decay. Sometimes this begins be- 

 low and spreads upward, but it generally 

 begins above and spreads downward, the 

 plant rotting off at the neck. The flowers 

 are 2 to 3 in. across, deep blue with a slight 

 slaty shade, and in clusters at the end of 

 each branch. The branches are 18 in. 

 high, and very slender at the base, so that 

 if unsupported in their early stages they 

 fall about and look untidy. Such neglect 

 is impossible to repair later, for branch 

 after branch breaks away in tying. It 

 is better to leave them alone, merely 

 pegging down the branches to prevent 



