HeNrt and Flood — The History of the London Plane. 1 1 



British Museum, Herb. Sloaue, No. 101, folio 112. In addition there are two 

 sheets of specimens, collected by Petiver about the same period, one of which. 

 Herb. Sloane, No. 149, folio 237— two fine leaves of Platanus acerifolia — is 

 labelled " Platanus media, n.d. Bobart, Ox." 



It is possible that the original tree, from which this specimen was taken 

 by Bobart, was then living in the Oxford Botanic Garden. As Plukenet 

 describes this plane as bearing large fruit-balls in 1700, it may have been 

 then thirty years old, which would give the date of origin of Platanus 

 acerifolia as 1670. 



This history synchronizes well with the date of the magnificent London 

 Plane,' probably the oldest in Europe, which is living in the Palace Garden 

 at Ely and now measures 110 feet high, the trunk being 2o feet in girth at 

 5 feet above the ground. It was planted by Gunning, when he was bishop 

 there between 1674 and 1681. Bishop Gunning spent some time at 0.\ford 

 before his appointment to the Ely diocese. 



The splendid London Plane at the Eanelagh Club, Barnes, is precisely of 

 the same size as the Ely tree, and is probably of the same age, both these 

 trees being apparently cuttings of the original tree, which is postulated in 

 this account to have been in the Oxford Botanic Garden. There is no record 

 of the age of the Eanelagh Club tree. There are two other immense London 

 Planes, probably coeval with the Ely tree, namely, one at Peamore, near 

 Exeter, and the other at Woolbeding, Sussex ; but no particulars of their 

 history can be obtained. 



On the Continent there are no examples of the London Plane approaching 

 in size or age the fine trees at Ely and Barnes ; and no mention is made of it 

 by any Continental writer before 1703, when it was briefly described by 

 Tournefort. Since the latter date, the cultivation of the London Plane has 

 spread over the Continent, and it is now common in towns in France and 

 Germany. In the United States, as stated above, it is widely cultivated as a 

 street tree, but almost invariably under the erroneous name of " P. orientalis." 

 The true P. orientalis is very rare in America, and is never used for planting 

 in streets. 



Various seedlings of the London Plane have been selected from time to 

 time; and one of them, P. piiramidalis, which originated on the Continent 

 about 1850, is now as commonly planted in the streets of our towns as the 

 true London Plane. Another seedling, /'. hispanica, a beautiful tree resem- 

 bling the Occidental Plane in foliage, was known in England before I7o 1 , 

 and must have come from seed of one of the earliest Loudon Planes. Tiie 



' Owing to an unfortunate mistake, the Ely tree is erroneously identified with 

 P. orientalis in Ehves and Henry, "Trees of Great Britain," iii, 021, plate 174 (I'JOS). 



