2042 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



as lightly as those of the birch or alder are covered, or beating them in with 

 the back of the spade, and not covering them at all ; and protecting the beds 

 with litter of some sort, to exclude the frost. (See p. 1685.) The plants will 

 come up the following spring, and, after two years' growth, will be fit for trans- 

 planting into nursery lines, there to undergo the usual routine of nursery 

 culture. (See P. occidentalis, Projiagation and Culture.) Cuttings of the Oriental 

 plane, put in in autumn, in a sandy soil, and in a shady situation, will root, but 

 by no means readily; and, therefore, this method is never resorted to by nur- 

 serymen. Layers soonest produce saleable plants; and this mode is almost 

 universally adopted, both in Britain and on the Continent. Layers may be 

 made either in autumn or spring : they root freely, producing shoots 3 it. or 

 4 ft. in length the first year; and they are ready to be taken off the following 

 autumn. After being one year in the nursery lines, they may be removed to 

 where they are finally to remain ; but, if they are to be planted as single trees, 

 and separately fenced, they should be kept in the nursery till they are 15 ft. 

 or 20 ft. high ; care being taken to transplant them every year, and to prune 

 their heads in proportion to the losses sustained by their roots in trans- 

 planting. Trees so treated will seldom fail when removed to their final situ- 

 ation ; but, if there should be any doubt of this, it may be removed, by cutting 

 off the greater number of side branches from the head, shortening the leading 

 shoot, and coating the wounds over with a composition, to exclude the air. 



Statistics. Recorded Trees. In addition to the remarkable trees recorded by the Greek and 

 Roman authors (see p. 2037.), the following may be noticed as having flourifJied in more modern 

 times. Hasselquist mentions a plane tree in the island of Cos (now Stanchio), the circumference 

 of the trunk of which was 2o| British feet. He brought a specimen of the tree to Linnaeus; 

 and It is now in the Linnaean herbarium. The celebrated plane tree at Buyukdfere, or the Great 

 Valley, is mentioned by Olivier, and, after him, by Pocqueville.Hobhouse, and various other writers. 

 Oirvier says that the trunk presents the appearance of 7 or S trees, having a common origin, which 

 he supposes to be the stool of a decayed tree, and which were all connected at their base. Dr. 

 Walsh, who measured the tree in 1831, found the trunk Ul ft. in circumference at the base, and its 

 branches covering a space 1.5(1 ft. in diameter. The trunk, he says, "divides into U branches, some ot 

 which issue from below the present surface of the soil, and some do not divide till they rise 7 ft. or 

 8 ft. above it. One of the largest is hollowed out by fire, and affords a cabin to shelter a husband- 

 man. The tree, if it can be considered a single plant, is certainly the largest in the world. Among 

 other travellers who notice it is a Frenchman who describes it, with some truth, as ' un temple de 

 verdure, surmonte d'un dome pret -^ toucher les nues.' When the Turks encamp in this valley, the 

 hollow of this great tree affords a magnificent tent to the seraskier who commands them, with all 

 his officers. But what renders the tree an object of more than usual interest is, that M. De Candolle 

 conjectures that it must be more than 2000 years old. Though it has become such an object of ad. 

 miration to recent travellers. Gillies takes no notice of it, nor even Tournefort, whose botanical nur- 

 suits would naturally have led him to do so." (Residence in Constantinople, &c.) Near Nostizza'the 

 jEcium of the ancients, on the beach of the stream Selinus, Hobhouse found " the enormous plane 

 tree which was notorious in the time of Chandler. One of its largest branches, as thick as the trunk 

 of most trees, has lately fallen off; and many of the other boughs are supported by long beams of 

 wood." (Joum. of Travels in Albania, p. 229.) The same tree is described by Buckingham as being 

 lott. in diameter, and 100 ft. in height, and as being covered with rich and luxuriant foliage. The 

 plane tree at Lee Court is mentioned by Evelyn as having been seen by him on September 16. 1683. 

 A portrait of this tree was published by Strutt, in his Sylva Britannica, p. 112. The circumference 

 ot the trunk, when measured by Mr. Strutt, was 14 i\. 8 in, at 6 ft. from the ground ; the height was 

 65 It. ; and it contained 301 cubic feet of timber. In Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. iii. p. 136 , 

 several large Oriental planes are mentioned as growing at the seat of Sir William Temple, at Moor 

 Park, near Farnham ; but, being afterwards destroyed by the severe frost of 1808 and 1809, it is more 

 than probable they were Occidental planes. Dr. Walker mentions several large plane trees as exist- 

 ing in Scotland in 1777 ; using the term sycamore, at that time generally applied to the platanus in 

 Scotland. One of the largest was in the Isle of Bute, at Mount Stewart ; where, on the 1st of Sep- 

 tember, 1786, the trunk measured 6 ft. 10 in. in circumference at 4 ft. from the ground. This tree was 

 planted by the Earl of Bute in 1738. In the year 1771, there was a row of Pl&tanus along the side of 

 one of the streets iii Rothsaj-, which grew there like willows ; but, before the year 1774, they were all 

 removed, to give place to new buildings. In Belgium, near Ghent, in the grounds of the villa of 

 M. Meulemeester, Dr. Neill found, in 1817, an avenue of Oriental planes, the finest he ever saw 

 The trees were, in general, about 70 ft. high, trained up to the height of about 40 ft., and the trunks 

 quite clean and healthy. 



Existing Trees. In the environs of London, at Mount Grove, Hampstead, 80 years old, it is 77 ft 

 high, the diameter of the trunk 4 ft. 4 in., and of the head 90 ft. ; in the Chelsea Botanic Garden, it is 

 upwards of 70 ft. high ; at Lambeth, the one before mentioned, 90 ft. high : and one in the grounds of 

 the Duke of Devonshire's villa, at Chiswick, notvery high, but with a head 100 ft. in diameter. South 

 of London : in Dorsetshire, at Melbury Park, 25 years planted, it is 44 ft. high, the diameter of the 

 .,..„i- , ft. Sin., and that of the head 30 ft. : in Hampshire, at Alresford, 41 years planted, it is 76 ft 



of the trunk 4 ft. 6 in., and that of the head 64 ft. Xorth of London : in Berkshire, at W'hite Knights 

 19 years planted, it is 26 ft. high : in Buckinghamshire, at Temple House, 13 vears planted, it is 20 ft' 

 high : in Pembrokeshire, at Stackpole Court, 40 years planted, it is 60 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 

 2 ft. fa in., and that of the head 30 ft. : in Shropshire, at WiUey Park, 15 years planted, it is 26 ft high • 

 m Worcestershire, at Croome, 58 years planted, it is 70 ft. high, thediameter of the trunk 2 ft., and oif 



