312 STRAITS OF THERMOPYLAE. 
CHAP. Immediately after passing this wall, upon the 
t ' / outside of it, and upon the left hand, is seen the 
fountain before alluded to ; precisely in the situ- 
ation that must have been occupied by the Spar- 
tans, when reconnoitred by command of Xerxes. 
Fiatanm It is shadcd by an enormous Plane-tree (^Pla- 
tanus Orienta/is) of unknown antiquity, self-sown 
in its origin, and one of many that may have 
flourished upon the spot ever since the Lace- 
dcemonian soldiers were seen at this fountain, 
combing their hair, and amusing themselves 
with gymnastic exercises '. Indeed, if the 
stories related by antient authors of the great 
age of the Oriental Plane-tree, in certain in- 
stances, were to be admitted as true, the pre- 
sent example might only be considered as an 
immediate offspring of some venerable plant 
found here upon that occasion; for the battle of 
Thermopylcu was fought only four hundred and 
eighty-one years before the Christian sera*, and 
Pausanias tells of a plane-tree in Arcadia sup- 
posed to have been planted by Menelans; so that 
the age of the tree, when he saw it, must have 
been thirteen hundred years. It is well known 
that the seeds of the Platanus Orientalis remain 
(1) Herodoti Polymnia, c. 203. 
(2) Vid. Chronicon ex Mariiior. j^nindd. L!. 66, 67. 
