620 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 
of the tree in the wild state in Greece and Asia Minor. At what time acerzfolia came 
into cultivation is unknown; but the evidence points to its having become common 
in the eighteenth century. All the very old trees in the Levant of which we have 
specimens, are, however, of the typical form. . 
Considering the difficulty of distinguishing between acerzfola and occidentals, 
in the absence of fruit, a character to which no attention was paid until 1856, when 
Sir W. J. Hooker? cleared up the confusion until then existing between them, it is 
probable that in the eighteenth century, as at the present time, the commonest plane 
in cultivation was P. acerifoia, and that P. occidentalis was very rare. The latter 
could never have been common, as it is quite unsuitable for our climate It 
dies at Kew after a few years, and we know of no specimen, older than nursery 
plants, in England. 
This we believe to be the true solution of the difficulty, namely, that acerzfolza 
was always the common tree in cultivation in England, that it was perpetually con- 
fused with occtdentalis, and often passed under that name, and that the American 
plane never reached adult size in this country. 
The origin and date of the first cultivation of acerzfolza must remain in doubt ; 
but I see no grounds for assenting to Schneider's view that it is a possible hybrid 
between occzdentalis and orientalis. It does not resemble the former in any way in 
the characters of the fruit; and the similarity in the shape of its leaves to those of 
the American plane is more apparent than real. (A. H.) 
CULTIVATION 
As the true oriental plane is now hardly to be procured in nurseries, where the 
maple-leaved or London plane has alone been propagated for many years, it is 
necessary either to sow seeds or make layers from the branch of an old tree. The 
seeds ripened in this country often (I think I may say usually) fail to germinate, 
probably on account of the insufficient heat of our autumn, yet I have raised a few 
seedlings from a tree at Fulham, which, however, soon died when planted out. As 
the fruiting heads hang on the tree till spring, it seems best not to sow them till 
then, and I have been successful in raising seedlings from seed gathered at Venice 
as late as May. 
The seeds should be rubbed out with sand, covered very lightly with fine soil, 
and kept shaded in a greenhouse until they germinate, as they grow very slowly 
the first year.’ It is better not to transplant them to the open ground until 
they are two or three years old, as the young wood does not ripen well ; and for these 
reasons it has been found by nurserymen much better to raise them by layering, or 
from cuttings, which Boutcher says should be about a foot long and torn asunder at 
the joints, with a knob of the old wood left on, and buried about eight inches deep. 
I have struck cuttings from the true oriental plane by this method. 
The trees are easy to transplant even when of considerable size, and require a 
deep rich soil to make them grow well. Though often planted by the side of water 
' Gard, Chron. 1856, p. 282, 
