THE ORIENTAL PLANE. 



207 



them now in the pubhc places in most towns. It 

 was in ancient times esteemed a good work to 

 plant Plane-trees in the Agora, or market- 

 place." 



Buckingham describes this same tree as ha^dng 

 a trunk fifteen feet in diameter, and a hundred 

 feet in height, and as being covered with rich and 

 luxuriant foliage. 



Just such another giant as this is described by 

 Pliny growing in Lycia. It stood near a fountain 

 by the road-side, and overshadowed a large area 

 with its tree-like branches. The trunk contained 

 a cave eighty feet in circumference, which was 

 set around with seats of moss-covered stones. 

 The Consul Lucinius Mutianus, when lieutenant 

 of the province, gave a banquet to seventeen of 

 his friends in this natural chamber, and all agreed 

 that the novelty of the scene gave a greater zest 

 to the viands than statues, pictures, or carved 

 work. 



But the celebrity of the Plane-tree extends to 

 countries yet more remote than Asia Minor. In 

 Persia, where it is called Chenar, it has been 

 venerated from the earliest period, and according 

 to some, was formerly considered a protection 

 against the plague. The Persian gardens are 

 generally intersected by avenues of these trees, 

 and under them the inhabitants prefer to perform 

 their devotions. Sir William Ousely mentions 

 that the devotees sacrifice their old clothes by 

 hanging them to the branches ; and that the trunks 

 of favourite Chenar-trees are commonly found 

 studded with rusty nails and tatters ; the clothes 

 sacrificed being left nailed to the tree till they 

 drop to pieces of themselves. A similar custom, 



