THE ORIENTAL PLANE. 



Platanus orientalis. 



Natural Order — Platanace^. 

 Class — MoNGECiA. Order — Polyandria. 



" Trees/' says the Roman naturalist Pliny^ 

 afforded the first inducement to the barbarous 

 tribes of Gaul to cross the Alps, and spread 

 themselves over Italy. A certain Swiss once 

 came to Rome to learn the art of a smith, and on 

 his return, took with him raisins, dried figs, oil 

 and wine ; the taste of which incited his country- 

 men to invade Italy with a hostile army. But 

 who would have thought it possible that a tree 

 should have been brought from a remote region of 

 the world, for the sake of its shade only ? Yet such 

 was the case : the Plane was first carried across 

 the Ionian Sea to shade the tomb of Diomede, 

 who was buried in one of the small islands ofi* 

 the coast of Apulia ; thence it was introduced 

 into Sicily ; from Sicily it was brought to 

 Rhegium in Italy by the tyrant Dionysius ; and 

 has now extended so far, that the Morini (people 

 of Calais) are taxed for its shade. Dionysius 

 held it in high honour, and since his time it 

 has so much increased in estimation, that its 

 roots are nourished with wine instead of water." 



Diomede was a Grecian hero, and to honour 

 his tomb, the tree was planted which had of 

 old been venerated in Greece, and even in Asia. 



