LXXII. PLATANA‘CEE: PLA‘TANUS. 927 
Flowers in both sexes solitary, opposite, ses- 
sile; one seated in every bract, and shorter. 
(Benth.) An evergreen shrub, or low tree. 
Mexico, on mountains. Height 15 ft. to 18 ft., 
and in some places with a trunk 2 ft. in di- 
ameter. Introduced in 1839. Only one plant 
of this very desirable evergreen has been raised 
in the Horticultural Society’s Garden. 
Other Species of Gérrya, —G. Lindléyi, con- 
sidered by Mr. Bentham as a variety of G. 
daurifolia ; G. macrophylla, with round leaves, 
resembling those of the common wayfaring tree ; 
G. oblénga, with very small leaves, very much 
resembling the smallest leaves on the Quércus 
Ilex ; and G. ovata, with small round leaves, 
about the size of those of the common plum, are 
described in Bentham’s Plante Hartwegiane, from 
specimens collected by M. Hartweg in different 
parts of Mexico. 1731. G. faurifolia. 
Orpver LXXII. PLATANA‘CE. 
ORD. CHAR, Flowers unisexual, collected into globose or oblong cat- 
kins of different sexes, involucrated or naked.-—dale flower having the 
perianth composed of numerous small linear pieces, intermixed with the 
stamen.— Female flower with the scales absent, or intermixed with the 
flowers; perianth adhering to the ovarium, cup-shaped, or ending in small 
pilose bristles. Carpels 1 or 2, 1-celled, horned at apex, coriaceous. Seeds 
solitary in the cells, pendulous. A/bumen none. (G'. Don.) 
Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous ; palmate. Flowers in glo- 
bular catkins. — Lofty deciduous trees, with widely spreading branches, 
dense foliage, and bark scaling off in hard irregular patches. Natives of 
the East of Europe, West of Asia, and North of Africa, and of North 
America, In Britain, they are chiefly planted for ornament, and they suc- 
ceed in any free moist soil, in a sheltered situation. They are readily pro- 
pagated by layers, or even by cuttings, and sometimes by seeds. The cause 
of the scaling and falling off of the bark, Dr. Lindley states to be the 
rigidity of its tissue; on account of which it is incapable of stretching as 
the wood beneath it increases in diameter. 
Genus I. 
ae 
PLA’TANUS L£, Tue Puane Tres. Lin. Syst. Mone‘cia Polyandria. 
Identification. Lin. Gen., 1075.; N. Du Ham., 2. p. 5. 3 Willd. Sp. Pl.; 4. p. 473. 
Synonyme. Platane, Fr.; Platanus, Ger. ; Platano, Ital. . 
erivation. From platys, ample; in allusion to its spreading branches and shady foliage. The 
name of plane tree is applied, in Scotland, to the A‘cer Pseddo-Platanus (see p. 414.) ; probably 
because the French, according to Parkinson, first called that the plane tree, from the mistake of 
Tragus, who fancied, from the broad of its leaves, that it was the plane tree of the ancients. 
Gen. Char. See Ord. Char. 
There are only two species introduced into Europe; one of which, P. 
orientalis, is found to be much hardier than P. occidentilis, though the latter 
