THE PLANE. 691 



slightly puckered. The principal ribs are conspicuous on both upper 

 and undersides, and are paler in colour than the blade itself. An 

 average leaf is from six to eight inches long, and is borne on a 

 stalk from one and a halt to two inches long, which is usually 

 curved and much swollen at the base, where it has to fit over the 

 bud. The new shoots and the leat-stalks are pale green, and the 

 latter rather hairy. The leaves lie horizontally, and are drooping. 



THE FLOWERS AND FRUITS. 



The buds containing flowers are fatter and rounder than the leaf- 

 buds. The outer scales are tinged with crimson, the inner ones, which 

 show when the buds develop, are green and hairy. The greenish 

 yellow catkin-balls, which are made up of either male or female florets 

 packed closely together, have grown early in May to about a quarter 

 of an inch in diameter, and one or more of them hang suspended 

 on a footstalk of about a half an inch long. The balls which contain 

 female florets continue to grow until the diameter of the fruit is about 

 an inch and the length of the stalk four or five inches. Gradually 

 this stalk frays away, and some time during the winter the fruit-ball 

 falls to the ground, where it breaks, and the seed, enveloped in down, 

 is carried away by the wind. 



THE PLANE (Platanus Orientalis). 



This species, of which the "London Plane" is a variety, appears 



to have been first imported in 1640. The Occidental Plane is, 



however, mentioned by Loudon before 1548 as growing in this 

 country. 



