ii.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 61 



Pliny also states that his Ostrya is a solitary tree, 

 growing about rocks washed by water, and very 

 similar in its bark and branches to the Ash y . 



Amongst the timber trees most remarkable for 

 their size and beauty I may mention the Oriental 

 Plane, the Platanus of Pliny, and the HXdravos of 

 the Greeks, which though flourishing everywhere 

 in Italy, and indeed in countries much less favoured 

 by climate, was, Pliny says, first brought across the 

 Ionian Sea to the Island of Diomedes, one of a 

 small group lying off the coast of Apulia, of volcanic 

 origin, and so nearly in a line with the volcanos of 

 Vesuvius and Vultur on the Italian continent, that 

 I should be tempted by its existence midway be- 

 tween the two countries to extend the line of 

 igneous action existing in that quarter from Italy to 

 Albania, and to suppose these islands to be a con- 

 necting link between the two. 



The Plane-tree, Pliny says, was first planted at 

 the tomb of Diomede, who was buried there, when, 

 according to the fable, his companions were turned 

 into sea-fowl, which still frequent the shrine of the 

 hero, and seem to discriminate between Greeks 

 and Barbarians, giving to the former a courteous 

 welcome, but pursuing the latter with loud and 

 clamorous cries 2 . 



The Plane-tree was afterwards imported from 

 thence into Sicily, and had become in the time of 



* Lib. xiii. c. 37. * Lib. x. c. 44. 



