217 
commonly cultivated, appear to be chance seedlings of this tree, 
being hybrids of the second generation. 
“The vigor of the London Plane is remarkable. It is exten- 
sively used for planting in the streets of towns in Europe and 
North America, as it has been found to surpass all other trees in 
its powers of resistance to drought, smoke, and other unfavorable 
conditions of soil and atmosphere. In the cities of New England, 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc., the London Plane is much more suc- 
cessful asa street tree than the Western Plane, notwithstanding 
the fact that the latter is the finest and largest native broad- 
leaved tree in the forests of these states. The selection as a 
street tree of the London Plane in preference to the native species 
in the regions where the latter flourishes, depends on the vigor 
inherent in the former tree on account of its hybrid origin. 
“The London Plane, being undoubtedly a hybrid, must have 
originated as a chance seedling in some botanic garden, where 
an Occidental Plane and an Oriental Plane happened to be 
growing close together. Such a seedling, by the vigor of its 
growth and the novelty of its foliage, would attract attention 
and be propagated by an observant gardener. The ease with 
which the London Plane can be raised from cuttings would 
much facilitate its propagation. I shall try to show that it 
possibly originated in the Oxford Botanic Garden about 1670, 
though this surmise cannot be definitely proved. 
“The Occidental Plane was introduced from America into 
England by Tradescant in 1636, about a century later than the 
earliest record of the Oriental Plane in this country. By 1670, 
there would have been trees of the American species old enough 
to bear pollen. The connexion with Oxford is as follows: 
Jacob Bobart, junior, who succeeded his father as curator of the 
Botanic Garden at Oxford in 1680, left in MS. an ‘Enumeration 
of Trees and Shrubs,’* in which for the first time there is 
mention in any record of the London Plane. This MS. is 
unfortunately without date; but a similar MS. has 1666 on the 
flyleaf. In the ‘Enumeration’ the planes in cultivation are dis- 
tinguished as follows: 
* ‘This is printed by Vines and Druce, ‘Account of Morrisonian Herbatium,' 
Pp. 261 (ro14).” 
