Lxxii. platana'ce.e: pla tanus. 



9-27 



Flowers in both sexes solitary, opposite, ses- 

 sile ; one seated in every bract, and shorter. 

 (Benf/i.) An evergreen shrub, or low tree. 

 Mexico, on mountains. Height 15 ft. to 18 ft., 

 and in some places with a trunk 2 ft. in di- 

 ameter. Introduced in 1839. Only one plant 

 of this very desirable evergreen has been raised 

 in the Horticultural Society's Garden. 



Otkej- Species of Gdnya. G. Lindley/, con- 

 sidered by Mr. Bentham as a variety of G. 

 /aurifolia ; G. macrophylla, with round leaves, 

 resembling those of the common wayfaring tree ; 

 G. oblonga, with very small leaves, very much 

 resembling the smallest leaves on the Quercus 

 /Mex ; and G. ovata, with small round leaves, 

 about the size of those of the common plum, are 

 described in Bentham's Plrmtts Hartwegiance, from 

 specimens collected by M. Hartweg in different 

 parts of Mexico. 



KSl G. /aurif6I;e. 



Order LXXII. PLATANA^CE^. 



Orb. Char. Flowers unisexual, collected into globose or oblong cat- 

 kins of different sexes, involucrated or naked. Male Jlower having the 

 perianth composed of numerous small hnear pieces, intermixed with the 

 stamen. Female Jlower with the scales absent, or intermixed with the 

 flowers ; perianth adhering to the ovarium, cup-shaped, or ending in small 

 pilose bristles. Carpels 1 or 2, 1-celled, horned at apex, coriaceous. Seed,'i 

 solitary in the cells, pendulous. Albitmen none. (G. Do7i.) 



Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous ; palmate. Floivers in glo- 

 bular catkins. Lofty deciduous trees, with widely spreading branches, 

 dense foliage, and bark scaling off in hard irregular patches. Natives of 

 the East of Europe, West of Asia, and North of Africa, and of North 

 America. In Britain, they are chiefly planted for ornament, and they suc- 

 ceed in any free moist soil, in a sheltered situation. They are readily pro- 

 pagated by layers, or even by cuttings, and sometimes by seeds. The cause 

 of the scaling and falling off of the bark, Dr. Lindley states to be the 

 rigidity of its tissue ; on account of which it is incapable of stretching as 

 the wood beneath it increases in diameter. 



Genus I. 



PLA'TANUS Z. The Plane Tree. 



Lin. Syst. Monoe^cia Polyandria. 



Sp. PI., 4. p. 473. 



Identification. Lin. Gen., VTih. ; N. Du Ham., 2. p. .5. ; Willd. 



Synoiiyme. Platane, Fr. ; Platanus, Ger. ; Platano, Ital. 



Derivation. From pla/t/s. ample ^ in allusion to its spreading branches and shady foliage The 

 name of plane tree is apvlied, in Scotland, to the ^"cer PseCido-i'l&tanus (see p. 414.) ; probably 

 because the French, according to Parliinson, first called that the plane tree, from the mistake of 

 Tragus, who fancied, from the broadness of its leaves, that it wa& the plane tree of the ancients. 



Gen. Char. See Ord, Char. 



There are only two species introduced into Europe; one of which, P. 

 orientalis, is found to be much hardier than P. occidentalis, though the latter 



