THE MANUAL OP GARDENING. 
65 
gold, and confided the charge of it to one of the Ten Thousand. 
He passed an entire day under its shade, encamping with his 
whole army in its vicinity, and the delay so occasioned was be- 
lieved to be one of the causes of his defeat. Pausanius (a. d. 
170) mentions a Plane tree of extraordinary size and beauty in 
Arcadia, which was said to have been planted by Menelaus, the 
husband of Helen, and to have been at the time he saw it 1300 
years old. 
Plane trees were planted near all the public schools in Athens. 
The groves of Epicurus, in which Aristotle taught his peripatetic 
disciples; the shady walks planted near the Gymnasia and other 
public buildings of Athens; and the groves of Academus, in 
which Plato delivered his celebrated discourses, were all formed 
of this tree. 
The remarkable Plane tree at Buyukdere, or the Great Val- 
ley, mentioned by Olivier, the naturalist, and after him by Pouc- 
queville, Hobhouse, and various other writers, has a trunk that 
presents the appearance of 7 or 8 trees, having a common origin, 
which Olivier supposes to be the stool of a decayed tree, and 
which were all connected at their base. Dr. Walsh, who mea 
suredthe tree in 1831, found the trunk 141 feet in circumference 
at the base, and its branches covered a space of 130 feet in di- 
ameter. The trunk divides into 14 branches, some of which 
issue from below the present surface of the soil, and some do not 
divide till they rise 7 or 8 feet above it ; one of the largest is 
hollowed out by fire, and affords a cabin to shelter a husbandman. 
The tree, if it can be considered a single plant, is certainly the 
largest in the world. But what renders it an object of more than 
usual interest, is that M. Decandolle conjectures it must be more 
than 2000 years old. 
The wood of the Oriental Plane in the Levant and in Asia is 
used in carpentry, joinery, and cabinet-making. It is said to make 
beautiful furniture, on account of the smoothness of its grain, 
and its susceptibility of receiving a high polish.” 
Salisburia adiantifolia (the Ginkgo , or, Maiden-hair 
Tree ). — The Salisburia is a native of Japan and China, and 
forms a large tree in its native country. Bunge, who accom- 
panied the Russian mission to China, states, that he saw one 
with a trunk nearly forty feet in circumference. Mr. Loudon 
says, the tree grows with considerable rapidity in the climate 
of London, and has attained the height of forty or fifty feet, in 
as many years. The longevity of the Salisburia promises to be 
great, as the largest trees in England continue to grow with as 
much vigour, as when newly planted. The highest tree there, 
planted in 1767, was, in 1838, above sixty feet. 
It was introduced into the United States, by Mr. Hamilton, in 
6 * 
