CELEBRATED TREES. 179 



A Plane of the same enormous growth, is men- 

 tioned by a late traveller * at the city of Cos. It 

 stands in the centre of the market-place, and over- 

 spreads the whole area of it. But its vast limbs, 

 bending with their own weight, require support ; 

 and the inhabitants of Cos have supported them 

 in a still grander style than the Lime at Niestadt 

 is supported. The whole city is overspread with 

 the I'uius 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 bending to the ground under their own 

 weight, yet, if they are proper anywhere, they are 

 proper in such a situation as this, where the tree 

 fills the whole area of a market-place with its 

 extended boughs, and is connected with the houses 

 on every side by the pillars which support them. 

 Some such idea as this very probably gave birth 

 to that beautiful form in Gothic architecture of a 



* Voyage. Pit toresque de la Grece. 

 M 2 



