74 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



THE GREATER TREES OF THE 

 NORTHERN FOREST.— No. 12. 

 THE EASTERN PLANE {Platanus 

 orientalis) . 



At first sight this classic tree, of which 

 there are many colossal examples in 

 Eastern countries, might be thought out 

 of place among trees of the Northern 

 Forest ; but it thrives even in the Lon- 

 don squares, and a tree that resists the 

 winters of London and Paris, and, worse 

 than all, the greasy smoke of Newcastle 

 coals, may well take a place among the 

 greater trees. For noble shade, rapid 

 growth, smoke-enduring, stately stem 

 (often 6ofeetclear),and fine picturesque 

 form, there is no better tree, and among 

 its many good qualities are freedom from 

 insect pests which worry most trees. It 

 is also easy to increase by seed, layers, or 

 cuttings ; the first the best way, the seed 

 coming freely in other countries, if not 

 in ours. The Eastern Plane is not a lover 

 of mountain land, but thrives in river- 

 carried soils in plain and valley. In 

 Eastern countries it seeks the waterside; 

 in our land that is not so essential, but 

 the best growth is always in valleys or 

 alluvial soil. Its beauty and health in 

 London may in part be owing to its way 

 of " throwing off its black skin yearly 

 like the snake." Though so common 

 in our midst, the Eastern Plane was 

 for many years mistaken for the West- 

 ern or American Plane, which does 

 not thrive in our country. Apart from 

 the fine Plane trees seen in London 

 squares and parks, there are many large 

 trees in the Thames valley and in other 

 southern and western lowlands — Kew, 

 Oxford, Ely, Castle Ashby, and Syon. 



"The Plane grows to a very large 

 size and to a great age in the eastern 

 parts of Europe and 



«£T2™ Asia Minor - A ^ry 

 noble example may be 



seen in the village of Vostigo, in Greece, 

 on the Gulf of Lepanto, which girthed 

 (when I was there in 1842), at 5 feet 

 from the ground, 3 7 feet 4 inches. This 

 tree, growing in the middle of the vil- 

 lage on a gradual slope, standing on a 

 raised platform of flat stones intended 

 for protection to the roots, is a strik- 

 ing object on entering the village, and 

 noteworthy as having existed in the 

 days of Pausanias, the historian. He, 

 living in the second century, mentions 

 it in his travels, and the tree must have 

 been of considerable size at that time to 

 have made it worthy of remark. Its age 

 probably dates from before the Chris- 

 tian era, which would make it more 

 than 2,000 years old. Yet when seen 

 by me in 1842 it was in full vigour and 

 health, the stem for some way up per- 

 fectly sound, though many of its larger 

 limbs and branches had succumbed to 

 age and storm. There are many other 

 parts of Greece and Turkey in which I 

 noticed Planes of remarkable size and 

 beauty, as along the banks of the stream 

 running through the Vale of Tempe in- 

 to the plains ofThessaly at the foot of 

 the Olympian range, where many mag- 

 nificent and stately specimens fringed 

 the banks of the stream for many miles, 

 and were growing in the greatest luxu- 

 riance when I visited the country last, 

 in 1846. I was especially struck with 

 the magnificence of a grove of these 

 trees in the island of Crete, in a vale at 



