THE PLANE TREE. 87 



or red, which, as the season advances, assumes a 

 crimson or scarlet hue of the brightest intensity. 

 These dotted about in ornamental shrubberies have a 

 very beautiful effect. 



The Plane Tree (Platanus), of the Natural order 

 Platanacea, and of Monceciapolyandria of the Linnaean 

 system. This is quite a different tree to the great 

 maple or sycamore, which is commonly termed the 

 plane tree in Scotland, of which I shall speak in a 

 few pages following. The genus includes only two 

 species, the Eastern and Western plane, which are 

 considered the most ornamental of all the broad- 

 leaved trees which are grown in England. The seeds 

 are contained in round balls, suspended by slender 

 threads from the branches of the tree, where they 

 hang all the year round, and which give a certain air 

 of individuality to the species, while perhaps there is 

 no tree which possesses more beautiful foliage. Our 

 English summers are, unfortunately, too brief to allow 

 of the young wood being matured, so as to stand the 

 frosts of winter ; the great objection to their more 

 general cultivation being the changeability of the 

 weather, which, when severe at the commencement 

 of the season, is apt to destroy the leaves after their 

 expansion from the buds, and they only do well when 

 the soil is warm and the situation early. Both species 

 attain to a very great size in their native countries, 

 and in the most favourable spots suited to their growth 

 in this country, no tree can surpass them in magnitude, 

 or beauty. 



The Eastern Plane (P. orientalis) is said to have 

 been introduced into England about the middle of 

 die sixteenth century, being a native of the east of 



