THE ORIENTAL PLANE. 



205 



would often do with wine, instead of water. 

 And so prized was the very shade of this tree, 

 that when afterwards they transplanted it into 

 France, they exacted a solarium, by way of 

 tribute, on any of the natives who should presume 

 to put his head under it." 



This veneration for the Plane still lingers in 

 the East. The great Plane of the island Stanchio 

 (anciently Cos) in the Archipelago, is remarkable 

 for its size and the care with which the natives 

 have attempted to preserve it. It has stood for 

 time immemorial in the chief town of the island, 

 and while it is the boast of the inhabitants, it is 

 also, and with justice, the wonder of strangers. 

 Earl Sandwich saw it in the year 1739, and calls 

 it a Sycamore. Among the curiosities of this 

 city is a Sycamore-tree, which is, without doubt, 

 the largest in the known world. It extends its 

 branches, which are supported by many ancient 

 pillars of porphyry, very antique, and other pre- 

 cious marble, in the exact form of a circle ; from 

 the outward verge of which, to the trunk, I mea- 

 sured forty-five large paces. Beneath the shade 

 of this sycamore is a very beautiful fountain, 

 round w^hich the Turks have erected several 

 chiosks, or summer-houses, to which they retire 

 in the heat of the summer, and regale themselves 

 with their afternoon coffee and pipe of tobacco." 

 Dr. Clarke saw the same tree many years after : 

 one enormous branch had then given way, not- 

 withstanding its being supported by pillars of 

 granite, and this loss considerably diminished its 

 bulk. " Some notion," he says, " may be formed 

 of the time those props have been so employed by 

 the appearance of the bark ; this has encased the 



