350 FLATANACE^. 



Apollo. The same author, also, mentions the famous 

 Plane of Lycia, which grew near to a fountain by the 

 highway side, itself a forest, and in the hollow of whose 

 mighty trunk the Roman governor Licinius Mucianus, 

 accompanied by eighteen of his attendants, had enjoyed 

 a repast. At a later period magnificent examples of this 

 umbrageous tree continued to flourish in Greece, and many 

 of these are existing at the present day ; one of the most 

 celebrated is the enormous Plane at Buyukdere or the 

 Great Valley, conjectured by M. de Candolle to be more 

 than two thousand years old ; when measured by Dr. 

 Walsh, in 1831, it was found to be one hundred and 

 forty-one feet in circumference at the base, and the 

 diameter of its head covered a space of. one hundred and 

 thirty feet. Some doubt, however, seems to exist as to 

 whether it should be considered as a single tree, or as 

 a number of individuals which have sprung from a decayed 

 stock and become united at the base. The hollow con- 

 tained within the stems of this enormous tree, we are 

 told, affords a magnificent tent to the Seraskier and his 

 officers, when the Turks encamp in this valley. An 

 enormous Plane, known to Chandler, is mentioned by 

 Hobhouse,* growing upon the bank of the Selinus, near 

 Nostizza ; Buckingham describes the same tree as being 

 fifteen feet in diameter and one hundred feet high, covered 

 with rich and luxuriant foliage. In Persia, the Chinar 

 or Oriental Plane has been cultivated from the earliest 

 period for the delightful shade it affords, and to the pre- 

 sent day it is planted in all the Persian gardens to form 

 avenues and shaded walks, under which, also, the inha- 

 bitants prefer to perform their religious exercises. The 

 Chinar and the poplar {Pop. fastigiatus) seem, with few 



* Hobhouse, " Journal of Travels in Albania," p. 229. 



