Platanus 619 
History oF THE CULTIVATED PLANES 
The oriental plane was introduced into Italy from Greece about 390 B.c.; and 
Hehn’ gives a full account of the classical allusions to the tree.2 It came into 
England* some time before 1562. In Turner’s Heréall, published in that year, a 
figure is given, and the author states: ‘I have sene the leves of that Platanus that 
groweth in Italy and two very yong trees in England which were called there Playn 
trees, whose leves in all poyntes were lyke unto the leves of the Italian Playn tree. 
And it is doubtles that these two trees were either brought out of Italy or of som 
farr countrie beyond Italy where unto the freres monkes and chanones went a 
pilgrimage.” 
The American plane, P. occidentalis, was introduced into England by 
Tradescant,* in whose garden two small plants were growing in 1636, when Johnson 
published his edition of Gerard’s Heréal/, It was undoubtedly in cultivation in the 
eighteenth century, as a specimen from a tree cultivated at Kew in 1781 exists in the 
British Museum ; but another specimen from the Chelsea Physic Garden, dated 1789 
and labelled P. occedentatis, is undoubtedly P. acertfolia. The figure given in 
Evelyn’s Sylva of P. occtdentals really represents P. acerifolia. Similarly Loudon’s 
description and figure of the American plane are inaccurate, and in part refer to 
P. acerifolia. The confusion between these two forms is thus shown to have begun 
early, and has lasted until quite recently; and it is probable that most of the 
references to the occidental plane in this country and on the continent of Europe 
refer to P. acerzfolia. 
Platanus acerifolia was first distinguished by Tournefort® in 1703. Miller,® in 
1731, gives an account of three kinds of plane: P. ovzentahs vera, P. occidentalis, 
and P. acerts folio; but he was unaware of the real distinctions between the two 
latter, attributing to P. occidentalis the property of being easily propagated by 
cuttings, whereas it is P. acertfoha of which this is true. He asserts that his 
P. aceris folio is only a seminal variety of P. ortentales. 
Bolle” states that Bourgeau found considerable forests of P. acerzfolza in Lycia. 
This statement has not been confirmed, and there is no evidence of the occurrence 
anywhere of this form in the wild state. The difference between it and the wild 
form of P. orientalis (var. tnsularcs) is mainly in habit, and taking into account the 
variability of the leaves on the wild tree, no two of which are alike in the specimens 
which I have examined, there is little doubt that P. acertfolia is a seedling variety of 
P. orientalis, which has been fixed in cultivation. Intermediate forms between it 
and the ordinary typical variety are not unusual. Bolle states that seedlings of 
acertfolia often exhibit the characters of typical ovzentalts. Further experiments on 
this point are desirable, as well as a thorough investigation of the range of variation 
1 Kulturpflanzen, ed. 6, p. 283. cet 
2 The Romans planted it in their gardens for shade ; Ovid calls it gentalis, and Horace c@leds because it did not support 
the vine. 
3 It was probably introduced into France in Provence about the same time. Cf. Le Jardin, 1896, pp. 116, 162. 
4 Cf. Parkinson, Theat. Bot. 1427 (1640). 5 Coroll. 41 (1703). 
6 Gard. Dict. ed. 1 (1731). 7 Gard. Chron. i. 564 (1876). 
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