TO RHODES. 249 
a female, with drapery finely executed, but 
the head, arms, and feet, had been broken 
off. On the left-hand side of the gate by 
which we entered the town, an Inscription re- 
mains, in a high state of preservation, beginning- 
ABOYAAKAIOAAMOS: this has already been 
published by Spon and by other authors, and 
therefore needs not to be inserted here. 
A plane-tree, supposed, and perhaps with PianeXrco. 
reason, to be the largest in the world, is yet 
standing within the market-place. It was 
described, as the famous plantain-tree, half a cen- 
tury ago, by Egmont and Heyman \ It once 
covered with its branches upwards of forty 
shops; and enough is still remaining to astonish 
all beholders. An enormous branch, extending 
from the trunk almost to the sea, although 
propped by antient columns of granite, gave 
way and fell. This has considerably diminished 
the effect produced by its beauty and prodigious 
size. Its branches still exhibit a very remark- 
able appearance, extending, horizontally, to a 
surprising distance; supported, at the same 
time, by granite and marble pillars found upon 
the island. Some notion may be formed of the 
time those props have been so employed, by 
(l) Egmont dM^ Heyman' sTrvLXch, &.C. vol.!. p. 263. 
