OF FOREST-TREES. 



61 



rnnhra mero. And so prized was the very shade of this tree, that when CHA 

 afterwards they transplanted it into France, they exacted a solarium, by ^""^^ 

 way of tribute, of any of the natives who should presume but to put his 

 head under it. Whether for any extraordinary virtue in the shade, or 

 other propitious influence issuing from the tree, a worthy knight, who 

 staid at Ispahan, in Persia, when that famous city was infected with 

 a raging pestilence, told me, that since they have planted a greater 

 number of these noble trees about it, the plague has not come nigh their 

 dwellings. Pliny affirms there . is no tree whatsoever which so well 

 defends us from the heat of the sun in summer, nor that admits it more 

 kindly in winter. And, for our encouragement, I do, upon experience, 

 assure you, that they will flourish and abide with us, without any more 

 trouble than frequent and plentiful watering, which, from their youth, 

 they excessively delight in, and gratefully acknowledge by their growth 



1744, it was eight feet high ; and when measured in April, 1775, the following were its 

 dimensions : 



Feet. Inches. 



Height 65 9 



Circumference at half a foot from the ground 7 9 



At five feet 5 6 



At ten feet 5 0 



At sixteen feet t... 4 8^ 



At twenty feet 4 6 



The Oriental Plane-tree was greatly respected by the ancients for its cooling shade : 



Jamque ministrantem Platanum potantibus umbram. vihg. 



And so great was their veneration for it, that in the height of their enthusiasm they used 

 to refresh its roots with wine instead of water. " Tantumque postea honoris increvit, 

 ut mero infuso enutriantur : compertum id maxime prodesse radicibus : docuimusque 

 etiam arbores vina potare." — plin. 



In the Academia, or school of Plato, the philosophers used to walk and converse 

 together under the shade formed by these delightful trees ; to which custom Horace 

 alludes : 



Atque inter Silvas Acaderai quserere verum. lib. ii. ep. ii. 



Pliny informs us, that this tree was first brought over the Ionian sea, into the Island 

 of Diomedes, for a monument to that hero : thence it passed into Sicily, and so into 

 Italy, where it has continued ever since to give coolness and refreshment to the inhabitants 

 in the height of summer. 



Volume II. I 



