636 PLATANUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PLATYSTEMON. 



Here the great trees, getting out of 

 the gardeners' way, or any attack of 

 primers or self-appointed tree-archi- 

 tects, assume their true and natural 

 form, and are fine at all seasons. 

 Where the Plane is used in the streets 

 of London, and on the Thames Embank- 

 ment, the costly and wasteful labour 

 of pruning the trees to one ugly shape 

 is carried out. The Planes are easily 

 increased by cuttings 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 



Platanus Orientatis. * 



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 acerifolia, a name with 

 many synonyms. The true Western 

 Plane, P. occidentalis, 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. cuneata 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 S. Italy and S.E. Europe 

 generally, it is a noble tree in the 

 southern parts of England, attain- 

 ing 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. 



PLATYCODON (Great Bell-flower}. 

 Perennials, allied to the Bell-flowers. 

 P. grandiflora is a handsome Siberian 

 perennial, hardy in light dry soils, but 

 impatient of damp and undrained 

 situations, where its thick fleshy 

 roots decay. Sometimes this begins 

 below and spreads upward, but it 

 generally begins above and spreads 

 downward, the plant rotting off at 

 the neck. The flowers are 2 to 3 

 inches across, deep blue with a slight 

 slaty shade, and in clusters at the end 

 of each branch. A rich loamy soil 

 and an open situation are best for it. 

 Propagate by seeds, which can be 

 readily procured. The young shoots, 

 if taken off when about 3 inches long, 

 in spring, and placed in a gentle bottom- 

 heat, will strike, but not freely. The 

 plant is a bad one to divide division 

 often resulting in failure and if 

 attempted must be carried out in May, 

 when the growth has just commenced. 

 P. autumnale, or chinense, from China 

 and Japan, is taller and more robust 

 than P. grandiflorum, with narrower 

 leaves, but more dense, and its flowers, 

 though smaller, are pretty evenly 

 distributed along the upper half of 

 the stems. Besides a white variety, 

 it has a tendency to become semi- 

 double, by a sort of " hose-in-hose " 

 re-duplication of the corolla, similar 

 to what occurs in many of our Cam- 

 panulas. The dwarf, Marie si, from 

 Japan, is distinct in habit, with rich 

 blue flowers. 



PLATYSTEMON. P. californicus is 

 a pretty Californian hardy annual 

 Poppywort, forming a dense tuft, 

 studded thickly in summer with 

 sulphur - yellow blossoms. It merely 

 requires to be sown in ordinary soil 

 in the open border either in autumn 

 or spring ; but the seedlings should 

 be well thinned out. 



