DESCRIPTIA'-E ENUMERATION OF TBEES, 75 



shot. From this circumstance the Occidental 

 Plane is called, in America, the Button Tree. It 

 flourishes there, commonly, by the sides of creeks 

 and rivers, and is of quick growth. The Oriental 

 Plane, I believe, loves the same soil : at least, both 

 trees in England are fond of moist ground. 



Kempfer tells us * that at Jedo, the capital of 

 Japan, he found a species of this tree, the leaves 

 of which were beautifully variegated, like the tri- 

 colour, with red, green and yellow. An appear- 

 ance of this kind is so contrary to Nature's usual 

 mode of colouring the leaves of forest trees that 

 I should rather suspect Kempfer saw it either, 

 when the leaves were in the wane, or blasted, or 

 in some other unnatural state. 



I may add, with regard to the Occidental 

 Plane, and indeed, I believe, with regard to both 

 the trees of this species, that their summer leaf 

 wears so light a hue, as to mix. ill with the foliage 

 of the Oak, the- Elm, and other trees. I have 

 seen them, on the skirts of a plantation, forming, 

 during the summer, a disagreeable spot. In 



* See page 524. 



