J60 

 tivation, especially in cities. It dif- 



fers from our native species chiefly in having smaller and more 

 deeply cut leaves and usually somewhat clustered fruit. It is a 

 native of western Asia and was brought to Europe by the Ro- 

 mans, who, with the Persians and the Greeks, held it in great 



their homes and shrines. The Persian fire-worshippers often 

 held their feasts beneath this tree, as the Druids were accus- 

 tomed to do beneath the oaks in the forests of northern Europe. 



The plane-tree is an excellent shade producer, the leaves ap- 

 pearing at the proper time in this latitude and remaining on the 

 tree as long as could be desired, when they give place to the per- 

 sistent and graceful fruit. With a little protection it passes the 

 northern winters uninjured and develops rapidly into a splendid 

 and shapely tree large enough for the widest avenues or capable 

 of being adapted by pruning, to which it most readily submits, to 

 very narrow streets. Such is the activity of its young wood and 

 bark that the stem is at times completely girdled without appre- 

 ciable injury, and the outer layers of its cortex are annually 

 sloughed off during late summer and autumn, leaving the new 

 layers beneath entirely free from soot and dirt accumulated during 

 the summer. It is partly due to this, perhaps, that it enjoys with 

 the Ailanthus the distinction of being best adapted to parts of 

 cities where smoke and dust abound. 



Plane-trees are comparatively free from either insect or fungous 

 :. The annual sloughing 



persists in a healthy condition after that of other trees has suc- 

 cumbed to heat and dust. In some cities of southern Europe 

 complaint is made of the thick hairy covering which becomes 

 detached from the young leaves and twigs and gets into the nose 

 and mouth, producing an inflammation known as " Platanus 

 cough." This tree is, however, most widely and abundantly 

 planted in the cities of India, Persia and Europe, while in 

 America it is deservedly growing more popular as a street tree 

 every year. In London it is considered by many to be the only 

 tree that will thrive in the dirt and smoke of so large a city. 



