THE ORIENTAL PLANE. 347 



palmate, and wedge-shaped at the base, the divisions 

 lanceolate and sinuated ; stipulas almost entire. 



For beauty and nobleness of aspect the Platanus yields 

 to no other tree in the East ; to a lofty height it adds a 

 massive trunk and wide-spreading head, which, at the 

 same time that it affords a delightful and almost impene- 

 trable shade, does not offend the eye by any of that 

 lumpish regularity of outline, which so often characterizes 

 the sycamore, the horse-chesnut, and the lime-tree. The 

 branching of the Plane is free and bold, and often in 

 tier-like masses, and the spray, from its crooked and zigzag 

 course, is devoid of formality, and, indeed, is often pictu- 

 resque. The trunk is covered with a smooth bark of a 

 greyish white colour, which scales off every year in large 

 irregular patches, often producing a pleasing variety of 

 tint. The leaves are large, cut into five deep segments, 

 the two outer of which are slightly lobed, and all have 

 their margins acutely indented. The petioles are rather 

 long-, with an enlargement at the base which covers the 

 nascent buds. On the upper surface the leaves are of 

 a pleasant shining green, the under surface is paler, with 

 the angles of the veins slightly tomentose. The catkins 

 which contain the seed are of a globular form and from 

 two to five in number, on axillary peduncles ; they vary 

 greatly in size, and are found from four inches to scarcely 

 one in circumference. The flowers are very minute. The 

 balls appear before the leaves in spring, and the seed 

 ripens late in autumn ; these are small, and not unlike 

 the seed of the lettuce, and are surrounded or enveloped 

 in a bristly down. 



Although this beautiful and classic tree appears to have 

 been introduced into England nearly three hundred years 

 ago, as it is mentioned by Turner in his " Names of 



