148 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



stamens with red anthers are attached to the under-side of the 

 cup. 



The name of the genus Populus is the old Latin for Poplar 

 and Aspen. 



The Oriental Plane (Platanus orientalis]. 



One need not go far into the country in order to see the 

 Plane. Its virtue as a smoke-proof tree has now been well 

 tested by the governing authorities in large towns, and it is 

 freely planted in recreation grounds and by the sides of broad 

 thoroughfares. In London it must now be about the 

 commonest tree ; and some of the specimens grown in the 

 west-end squares are very fine. Several of the London Planes 

 have become quite " lions," to be seen by all visitors who 

 " do " the Metropolis ; such is the individual that overtops the 

 old-fashioned houses at the corner of Wood Street, Cheapside. 

 More celebrated, perhaps, is the Stationers' Hall Court tree, 

 which, though only about sixty-five years old, is so important 

 a feature of that corner of the City that, on the rumour that it 

 was to be cut down a few years since to allow of certain 

 improvements in the court, the denizens of Paternoster Row 

 and the precincts were up in arms, and evinced such indigna- 

 tion that the building plans of the Stationers' Company were 

 modified, and the tree spared to delight the sparrows of the 

 vicinity, and to bring thoughts of the country into the hearts 

 of the publishing and bookselling fraternity who daily pour 

 through the court. 



In spite of its apparent enjoyment of London smoke and 

 fog the plane-tree is not even a Britisher. Its introduction to 

 England has been credited to Francis Bacon, but Loudon 

 declares it was in our gardens prior to 1548 thirteen years 

 before the birth of the Lord Keeper. 



The leaves of the Plane are very similar to those of the 

 Sycamore and False-Sycamore (see page 134), but one feature 



