THE PLANES 149 
distinct species, though they have utterly failed to 
bring forward any one strongly distinctive character. 
No Planes are known to the east of Kashmir, though, 
on the analogy of the distribution of Tulip-trees—if 
the theory of the eastward retreat of the European 
flora of Miocene times towards America be well 
founded—we might expect them to occur in China 
or Japan. In this connection it is interesting to 
note, though the evidence must be but slight, that 
the fossil Plane-leaves found in the Miocene rocks 
of Europe were believed by Dr. Oswald Heer of 
Ziirich to be more nearly related to the Occidental 
than to the Oriental form. There can be little doubt 
that the Oriental Plane is indigenous in Persia, 
though it has also been cultivated in that country— 
where it is known as chinar—from a very early 
period; whilst if of human introduction in the 
Balkan peninsula, that introduction must probably 
date back more than 2,000 years. In Spain, and 
even in our own country, it seems that its short 
history has permitted of the origin of tolerably 
distinct varieties. The Occidental Plane was first 
brought into England from Virginia, in 1640, by the 
younger Tradescant to his father's garden at Lam- 
beth, where was that remarkable collection of curios- 
ities which afterwards constituted the Ashmolean 
Museum at Oxford. It is indigenous in the 
United States from Mexico to Canada, and from 
the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. Its place is 
taken in Mexico by two forms considered as species 
by De Candolle, P. lindenia’na and P. mexica'na ; 
and in California by a third, P. racemo'sa Nutt. 
