114 



ORIENTAL PLANE-TREE.-PLATANUS. 



Natural order, Amentacece. A genus of the 

 Monoecia Polyandria class. 



" When the sun begins to fling 



His flaming beams, me, goddess, bring- 

 To arched walks of twilight groves." Milton. 



" His spreading planes their pleasant shade extend, 

 Where he enjoys his bottle and his friend." 



Lauderdale's Virgil. 



£g£* p\ 'EXevug Qvtov eipi. " Reverence me ; 

 I am the tree of Helen." Thus Theocritus 

 represents the virgins of Sparta, singing in 

 the Epithalamium of their princess, who 

 afterwards caused her husband, her hand- 

 maids, and her country so much woe. 



This beautiful Asiatic tree, which the an- 

 cients consecrated to the Genii, seems to have 

 bewildered the mind of Xerxes, as much as 

 the beauty of Helen had overpowered the 

 reason of Paris, for iElian tells us very seri- 

 ously, that this Persian monarch was so 

 attracted by the charms of a plane-tree which 

 he found in Phrygia, that he caused his prodi- 



