274 SYLVAN WINTER. 



from the ground ; and another on the banks of 

 the same river, that had a clear trunk of tAventj 

 feet, the circumference of which was forty- seven 

 feet. Of yet another enormous Plane Gilpin 

 speaks, mentioned, he says, by a late traveller 

 (Grilpin wrote this a hundred years ago), the 

 aathor of a book entitled ' Voyage pittoresque 

 de la Gr^ce/ The Plane in question was seen at 

 the city of Cos. He goes on to say,- — 



' It stands in the centre of the market-place, 

 and overspreads the whole area of it. But its 

 vast limbs, bending with their own weight, require 

 support : and the inhabitants of Cos have sup- 

 ported them in a still grander style than the 

 Lime at Niestadt is supported. The whole city 

 is overspread with the ruins of antiquity, and 

 some of the choicest columns of marble and 

 granite, which had formerly adorned temples and 

 porticoes, have been collected and brought to 

 prop the limbs of this vast tree. Though the 

 picturesque eye is not fond of these adventitious 

 supports, and would rather see. the boughs bend- 

 ing to the ground under their own weight, yet, 

 if they are proper anywhei'e, they are proper in 



