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THE ORIENTAL PLANE. 



extremities of the columns so completely that the 

 branches and the pillars mutually support each 

 other ; and it is probable, if those branches were 

 raised, some of them would lift the pillars from 

 the earth." A specimen of this tree was given 

 by Hasselquist to Linnaeus, and it is now in the 

 Linnaean Herbarium. 



The Rev. S. Clark, of St. Mark's College, has 

 furnished me with an interesting account of a 

 Plane-tree, yet standing at Vostitza, a town on 

 the Gulf of Lepanto, the ancient Corinthian 

 Gulf. 



Vostitza, January 22nd 1844. — At this 

 place (the ancient ^gium, where Agamemnon 

 assembled the kings before the expedition to 

 Troy, and which in later times was the head 

 of the cities of the Achaean league) near where 

 we landed, is an oriental Plane-tree of great 

 beauty and vast size, said by the inhabitants to 

 have stood from the time of Alexander. A more 

 probable tradition fixes its age at eight centuries. 

 We measured the trunk carefully, and found it 

 forty-six feet in circumference. The branches 

 spread nobly, but perhaps not quite in proportion 

 to the height ; the symmetry of the tree would 

 else be as remarkable as its size. There is a large 

 hollow in the trunk, which was formerly used as a 

 prison, the opening being of moderate size, and 

 easily fitted with a door. The tree stands in 

 the lower town, at the foot of the somewhat 

 tall cliff* of loose conglomerate, on which the 

 upper town is built. I suppose this situation 

 has favoured its growth upwards. 



The Plane-tree was the tree employed by the 

 Greeks to make a useful shade ; and you find 



