THE PLANES 149 



distinct species, though they have utterly failed to 

 bring forward any one strongly distinctive character. 

 No Planes are known to the east of Kashmir, though, 

 on the analogy of the distribution of Tulip-trees if 

 the theory of the eastward retreat of the European 

 flora of Miocene times towards America be well 

 founded we might expect them to occur in China 

 or Japan. In this connection it is interesting to 

 note, though the evidence must be but slight, that 

 the fossil Plane-leaves found in the Miocene rocks 

 of Europe were believed by Dr. Oswald Heer of 

 Zurich to be more nearly related to the Occidental 

 than to the Oriental form. There can be little doubt 

 that the Oriental Plane is indigenous in Persia, 

 though it has also been cultivated in that country 

 where it is known as chinar from a very early 

 period ; whilst if of human introduction in the 

 Balkan peninsula, that introduction must probably 

 date back more than 2,000 years. In Spain, and 

 even in our own country, it seems that its short 

 history has permitted of the origin of tolerably 

 distinct varieties. The Occidental Plane was first 

 brought into England from Virginia, in 1640, by the 

 younger Tradescant to his father's garden at Lam- 

 beth, where was that remarkable collection of curios- 

 ities which afterwards constituted the Ashmolcan 

 Museum at Oxford. It is indigenous in the 

 United States from Mexico to Canada, and from 

 the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. Its place is 

 taken in Mexico by two forms considered as species 

 by De Candolle, P. lindenia'na and P. mexica'na ; 

 and in California by a third, P. racemo'sa Nutt. 



