620 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



of the tree in the wild state in Greece and Asia Minor. At what time acerifolia came 

 into cultivation is unknown ; but the evidence points to its having become common 

 in the eighteenth century. All the very old trees in the Levant of which we have 

 specimens, are, however, of the typical form. 



Considering the difficulty of distinguishing between acerifolia and occidentalism 

 in the absence of fruit, a character to which no attention was paid until 1856, when 

 Sir W. J. Hooker ' cleared up the confusion until then existing between them, it is 

 probable that in the eighteenth century, as at the present time, the commonest plane 

 in cultivation was P. acerifolia, and that P. occidentalis was very rare. The latter 

 could never have been common, as it is quite unsuitable for our climate It 

 dies at Kew after a few years, and -we know of no specimen, older than nursery 

 plants, in England. 



This we believe to be the true solution of the difficulty, namely, that acerifolia 

 was always the common tree in cultivation in England, that it was perpetually con- 

 fused with occidentalis, and often passed under that name, and that the American 

 plane never reached adult size in this country. 

 - ^, The origin and date of the first cultivation of acerifolia must remain in doubt ; 



A VHM^ ^'lU' ^"'' ^ ^^^ " grounds for assenting to Schneider's view that it is a possible hybrid 



" * between occidentalis and orientalis. It does not resemble the former in any way in 



the characters of the fruit ; and the similarity in the shape of its leaves to those of 

 the American plane is more apparent than real. (A. H.) 





Cultivation 



As the true oriental plane is now hardly to be procured in nurseries, where the 

 maple-leaved or London plane has alone been propagated for many years, it is 

 necessary either to sow seeds or make layers from the branch of an old tree. The 

 seeds ripened in this country often (I think I may say usually) fail to germinate, 

 probably on account of the insufficient heat of our autumn, yet I have raised a few 

 seedlings from a tree at Fulham, which, however, soon died when planted out. As 

 the fruiting heads hang on the tree till spring, it seems best not to sow them till 

 then, and I have been successful in raising seedlings from seed gathered at Venice 

 as late as May. 



The seeds should be rubbed out with sand, covered very lightly with fine soil, 

 and kept shaded in a greenhouse until they germinate, as they grow very ^slowly 

 the first year. It is better not to transplant them to the open ground until 

 they are two or three years old, as the young wood does not ripen well ; and for these 

 reasons it has been found by nurserymen much better to raise them by layering, or 

 from cuttings, which Boutcher says should be about a foot long and torn asunder at 

 the joints, with a knob of the old wood left on, and buried about eight inches deep. 

 I have struck cuttings from the true oriental plane by this method. 



The trees are easy to transplant even when of considerable size, and require a 

 deep rich soil to make them grow well. Though often planted by the side of water 



' Gard. Chron. 1856, p. 282. 



