Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



matized, for the same Greek authority says that the 

 trees planted at Reggio by Dionysius never attained 

 any size. One would, however, gather that in 

 Augustan times it was a fine tree in much more 

 northerly situations. In our days there are magni- 

 ficent trees at Bologna. 



It seems to owe its name to its broad leaves 

 (irXarvs), and it was planted only for its beauty and 

 for shade. Its habit of shaling its bark made it 

 unfit to support the vine, and it was hence called 

 1 caelebs,' the bachelor tree. It also seems doubtful 

 whether it would survive the treatment which the 

 elm and the willow underwent when they were used 

 in the vineyard. The size of its leaves is sometimes 

 assigned as a reason, but this would hardly count 

 if it were reduced to a single shoot. 



It was customary in summer to hold the sym- 

 posium under its shade, and the old Corycian was 

 able to transplant it when it was already large 

 enough for this end, ' ministrantem platanum potan- 

 tibus umbras ' (Ge. iv. 146). 



The London plane is a variety w 7 hich seems to 

 have been developed in the great city itself. Its 

 liking for a city life used to be ascribed to the shaling 

 of its bark, but it is now recognized that London 

 dirt does its harm not through the bark, but through 

 the buds and leaves, in which point the plane is no 

 better off than its fellows. Its fruit, which breaks up 

 in the spring, has come under some suspicion as a 

 contributory cause of catarrh. It had this reputation 

 with Dioscorides, and London newspapers have 



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