106 



dant flowers, and rich glossy foliage, is 

 perhaps, the most beautiful of all the har- 

 dier ever-green shrubs; but the bark of it 

 is rugged, and the leaves, which like those 

 of the rose, are sawed at the edges, have 

 those edges pointed upwards, and cluster- 

 ing in spikes: and it may possibly be from 

 that circumstance, and from the boughs 

 having the same upright tendency, that Vir- 

 gil calls it arbutus liorrida, or, as it stands 

 in some manuscripts, horrens. Among 

 the foreign oaks, maples, &c. those are 

 particularly esteemed, the leaves of which 

 (according to a common, though perhaps 

 contradictory phrase) are beautifuUyjagged. 



The oriental plane has always been 

 reckoned a tree of the greatest beauty: 

 Xerxcs's passion for one of them is well 

 known, as also the high estimation they 

 were held in by the Greeks and Romans. 

 The surface of their leaves is smooth and 

 glossy, and of a bright pleasant green; 

 but they are so deeply indented, and so 

 full of sharp angles, that the tree itself is 

 often distinguished by the name of the 

 true jagged oriental plane. 



