1 "-^ 
-ji^zjML 
^ 
SACRED BOTANY. — ^THE PLANE THEE. 
Um\ i'ntnnij.— (KljB ^Jlnttt (Ertt. 
fllE devout reader of the canonical Scriptures, acquainted only with, the authorized version, will 
hardly be prepared to admit that the Plane tree is registered in its sacred pages ; and yet, the 
learned in these matters have decided that it is so. The Hebrew word so explained is armon, for 
which our translation reads " Chesnut trees," in two distinct passages. One argument in favour of 
the Plane tree being that referred to, has by some — RoscnmuUcr, Kitto, and Callcott, among others — 
been di-awn from the connection in which the word armon is foraid : — "And Jacob took him rods of 
green Poplar, and of the Hazel, and Chesnut (Plane) tree. . . . And he set the rods . . in 
the watering-troughs" (Genesis xxx. 37). The word here translated " hazel" is luz, which, according 
to the views of those who argue thus, is the " willow ;" and it is hence inferred that there is an 
appropriateness and congruity in the connection, all the thi'ee kinds of trees mentioned affecting the like 
kinds of damp situations. 
Russell expressly mentions the Plane, Poplar, and Willow, as observed growing together with the 
Ash, in the same kind of low humid localities near 
Aleppo. But there is, after all, some iucongi-uity in 
this view : luz is universally admitted, even by the 
authors above-cited, to be one of the names of the 
almond — a tree not met with in low damp local- 
ities, but rather flourishing in dry situations ; and 
besides, the willow has other Hebrew appellations, 
as arab, and zaphzaphah, the proper application of 
which terms to the Willow seems beyond doubt. 
We must therefore abandon this point as evidence 
in favour of the Plane tree. That it is the tree re- 
ferred to in the text is, however, supported by the 
most ancient Greek translation, as well as the Latin, 
the Syriae, the Chaldee, and the Arabic. 
The other passage in which the word armon 
oocm'S is in a figiu-ative description of the glory of 
Assyria : " His root was by great waters. The Ce- 
dars in the gaxden of God could not hide him ; the 
Fir trees were not like his boughs, and the Chesnut 
(Plane) trees were not like his branches ; nor any 
tree in the garden of God was like mito him in his 
beauty" (Ezekiel xxxi. 7, 8). This is especially 
applicable to the Oriental Plane, than which there 
are few trees more stately and beautifully expres- 
sive in character, even when transferred to our north- 
ern latitudes. Assyria is remarkable for the size 
and extraordinary beauty of its Chenar (Plane) 
groves ; and Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor still 
abound with them. 
The Plane tree is again mentioned in the Apocrypha, in a passage wherein " -svisdome docth shew her 
glory," as follows : — " I was exalted like a Cedar in Lebanon ; . . . and grew up as a Plane tree by 
the water" (Eccles. xxiv. 13, 14), a figurative expression well according with the noble bearing of the 
tree. 
The Oriental Plane {Platanus oricntalis) is a tree of Western Asia, extending, according to Royle, 
as far eastward as Cashmere. It forms a stately tree, seventy or eighty feet or upwards in height, 
with a massive ti-unk, from which, when planted in congenial situations, the huge branches grow 
up to an enormous size, and spread wide in aU directions. The trunk and branches are clothed 
vsdth smooth light-ooloui-ed bark which scales off annually in broad u-regular patches, giving the tree 
a singularly speckled appearance when bare of its foliage. This scaling off of the bark is said to be 
occasioned by the rigidity of its tissue, incapable of stretching as the wood beneath increases in 
diameter. It is a very rapid growing tree, and lives to a great age. The timber is useful for a 
variety of pm-poses. The foliage is ample, well adapted for shade, and hence it must have been pecu- 
liarly valued in the warm cKmate of the East. The leaves are palmate, divided into live lanceolate 
PLATANUS OEIENTAL-S ACERIFOLIA. 
^. 
=G\a 
31 
