62 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK II. accordingly ; so as I am persuaded that, with very ordinary industry, they 

 '-'^''^^^^^ might be propagated to the incredible ornament of the walks and avenues 

 to great men's houses. The introduction of this true Plane among us is, 

 perha})s, due to the great Lord Chancellor Bacon, who planted those 

 (still flourishing ones) at Verulam ; as to mine, I owe it to that honour- 

 able gentleman, the late Sir George Crook, of Oxfordshire, from whose 

 bounty I received an hopeful plant, now growing in my villa. 



There was lately at Basil, in Switzerland, an ancient goodly Plata- 

 netum, and now in France they are come again in vogue : I know it was 

 anciently accounted axapnoq; but theymay with us be raised of their seeds 

 with care, in a moist soil, as here I have known them. But the reason 

 of our little success is, that we very rarely have them sent us ripe ; these 

 should be gathered late in autumn, and brought us from some more 

 Levantine parts than Italy. They come also of layers abundantly, affect- 

 ing a fresh and feeding ground ; for so they plant them about their 

 rivulets and fountains. The West-Indian Plane is not altogether so rare, 

 but it rises to a goodly tree, and bears a very ample and less jagged leaf. 

 That the Turks use their Platanus for the building of ships, I learn out 

 of Ricciolus Hydr, lib, x. cap. xxxvii. And Pliny informs us that 

 canoes and vessels for the sea have been excavated out of their pro^ 

 digious trunks. 



LOT US. ° 



I have the same opinion of the LOTUS ARBOR, (another lover of 

 the water,) which in Italy yields both an admirable shade, and timber 



» Of this TREE there are three species j 



1. CELTIS fAVSTRALisJ foliis lanceolatis, acuminatis, serratis, nervosis. Mill. Diet. 

 Nettle-tree loith spear-shaped, pointed leaves, which are veined, and sawed on their edges. Celtis 

 fructu nigricante. Tourn. Inst. 6l2. Lote-tree v.ith a black fruit. Lotus s. Celtis, Cain, 

 epit. 155. Lotus Arbor. Lob. L 186. The common nettle-tree. 



This sort grows naturally in the south of France, in Spain, and Italy, in which countries it grov;s 

 to a tree of considerable size ; in England it is not so common as the second kind. It rises 

 with an upright stem to the height of forty or fifty feet, sending out many slender branches 

 upward, which have a smooth, dark-coloured bark, with some spots of gray ; these are 

 garnished with leaves placed alternately, which are near four inches long, and about two 

 broad in the middle, ending in long, sharp points, and deeply sawed on their edges, having 

 several transverse veins which are prominent on their under side. The flowers come out 

 from the wings of the leaves all along the branches ; they have a male and an hermaphrodite 



