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visit to the Thames Embankment and several other of the 

 urban districts, will substantiate the statement ; while the 

 fine old tree which still exists at Cheapside, and the equally 

 beautiful specimen, which has hardly room for perfect 

 development, in the Court of Stationers' Hall, Ludgate Hill, 

 or those in Staple Court, High Holborn, afford other 

 examples of how well-suited this handsome tree is for doing 

 battle with the smoke and impurities of the great Metropolis. 

 As a diversity of opinion has existed about which variety of 

 plane it is that grows with such vigour in and around 

 London, it may be stated that on a careful examination of a 

 large number of specimens, the variety P.O. acerifolia was 

 found not only more commonly distributed, but likewise 

 better suited for town-planting than the typical P. orientalis. 

 This valuable variety is readily distinguished from the normal 

 plant by the less deeply divided leaves, and from the 

 American plane (P. occidentalis), with which it is not infre- 

 quently confounded, by the many fruit " balls " which are 

 attached to each peduncle, the fertile catkins of P. occiden- 

 talis being for the greater part produced singly. 



But not only for its value as a town-tree is the Oriental 

 plane much sought after, for the giant proportions to which 

 it attains, coupled with the handsome, finely-cut leaves and 

 easy habit of growth, renders it one of our most desirable 

 ornamental trees. Then it is of the easiest culture, succeed- 

 ing extremely well in soils of the very opposite qualities.. 

 Taking everything into consideration, we question much 

 whether any other of our forest trees is of a greater or even 

 epual value with the plane for town -planting. 



The Maidenhair Tree {Ginkgo biloba). — A prolonged 

 visit to the very worst smoke-infested slums of London, has 

 now quite convinced me that the maidenhair or ginkgo tree 

 is one of the most valuable that can be planted in the im- 

 pure atmosphere of a town garden. Few trees, I am fully 

 aware, can compare with the one in question for withstand- 

 ing the deleterious effects produced on vegetation generally 

 by coming in too close contact with the impurities of our 

 great centres of industry. The ample delicate green foliage 

 betrays — even late in the season, and when about to be cast 

 off — little evidence of the fierce struggle that must almost 

 constantly go on between vegetation and the smoke and filth 

 of our towns and cities. That the thick leathery leaves and 



