60 



A DISCOURSE 



P.OOK II. from it, he caused the figure of it to be stamped on a medal of gold, 

 ■"^^ which he continually wore about him. Wherever they built their sump- 

 tuous and magnificent colleges for the exercise of youth in gymnas- 

 tics, as riding, wrestling, running, leaping, throwing the discus, &c, and 

 where the graver philosophers also met to converse together, and improve 

 their studies, they planted walks of Platans, to refresh and shade the Pa- 

 laastritiE, as you have them described by Vitruvius, lib. v. cap. xi. and as 

 Claudius Perrault has assisted the text with a figure, or ichnographical 

 plot. These trees the Romans first brought out of the Levant, and cul- 

 tivated with so much industry and cost, for their stately and proud heads 

 only, that the great orators and statesmen, Cicero and Hortensius, would 

 exchange now and then a turn at the bar, that they might have the 

 pleasure to step to their villas, and refresh their Platans, which they 

 would often irrigate with wine instead of water : Crevit et affuso latior 



to make them throw out young wood for layering. The autumn following, these should 

 be laid in the ground, with a little nick at the joint ; and by that time twelvemonths they 

 will be trees of a yard high, with good roots ready to be planted out in the nursery, where 

 they may be managed as the seedlings ; and as the stools will have shot up fresh young 

 wood for a second operation, this treatment may be continued as long as you please. 



The Occidental Plane-tree is propagated by cuttings ; which if they are taken from 

 strong young wood, and planted early in the autumn, in a moist good mould, will seldom 

 fail. They are generally planted thick, and then removed into the nursery-ground, as the 

 layers of the other sort : but if a large piece of moist ground was ready, the cuttings may 

 be placed at such a distance as not to approach too near each other, before they are of a 

 sufficient size to plant out for good ; and this would save the expense and trouble of a re- 

 / moval. The Oriental Plane-tree will grow from cuttings, but not so certainly as this ; 



and whoever has not the conveniency of proper ground for the cuttings, must have 

 recourse to layers with this tree also; which, indeed, is the surest and most effectual 

 method. 



The Plane-tree delights in a moist situation, especially the Occidental sort. Where the 

 land is inclined to be dry, and Plane-trees are desired, the two varieties are to be pre- 

 ferred. 



At Ribston, the seat of Sir Henry Goodrick, Bart, there is now growing a most beauti- 

 ful Platanus, the principal limb of which extends forty-four feet from the bole ; and what 

 is very remarkable, this tree grows close to the original Apple-tree, known by the name of 

 the Ribston Pippin, from whose stock have sprung a numerous progeny, bearing a most 

 delicious fruit. 



At Shadwell-Lodge, in the county of Norfolk, the seat of John Buxton, Esq. there may 

 be seen a Plane-tree, which is remarkable for its speedy growth. When planted in April 



