5 IT 
first brought over the Ionian sea ’ int0 tlle isla nd of Diomedes, for a monument to that hero; thence 
it passed into Sicily, and so into Italy * It was planted near their houses, and in rows for walks; 
and was even irrigated with wine. 
I liny affirms, that there is no tree whatsoever which so well defends us from the heat of the sun 
in summer, or that admits it more kindly in winter; the branches being produced at a proportional 
distance to the largeness of the leaves; (which holds good in all sorts of trees yet known); so that 
when the leaves are fallen in winter, the branches easily admit the rays of the sun. Virgil calls the 
Platanus sterilis , not because it bears no seed, but no fruit that is eatable. 
Mr. Miller says, it is generally supposed, that the introduction of this tree in England is owing to 
the great Lord Chancellor Bacon, who planted a noble parcel of them at Verulam, which were very 
flourishing some years since, but have lately been destroyed. 
Mr. Evelyn also says, the introduction of this true Plane among us, is perhaps due to the great 
Lord Chancellor Bacon, who planted those, still flourishing ones (1?06) at Verulam. He adds, that 
he owed a hopeful plant then growing at his own villa to the late Sir George Crook, of Oxfordshire. 
He speaks of the true Plane of antiquity, as being very rare in England in his time, and of the Ame¬ 
rican Plane as more common. 
Mr. Miller also informs us, that there were very few large Oriental Plane Trees to be seen’; which 
he thinks might be owing to the great esteem persons of the last age had for the Lime Tree, which 
being much easier to propagate, and of quicker growth during the three or four first years, became 
more fashionable for avenues and shady walks near habitations. 
But we had the Oriental Plane-tree in England certainly before the time of Lord Bacon; for it 
appears from Turners Herbal, that it was cultivated here as early as 1562 ;f whereas the Chancellor 
was born only in 1561. The plantations however at Verulam might be the first of any note or 
consideration. 
Mr. Boutcher from Evelyn, and he from Bieciolus, says that the Turks used to build most of 
their ships with this timber; that it was hard, close, takes a fine polish, and is valuable for a variety 
of useful purposes. Mr. Marshall, seemingly with more reason, ranks this wood with that of the 
Great Maple, vulgarly called Sycamore, and in the North of England Plane Tree. 
With us it is considered merely as an ornamental tree, and is not so common as the American 
Plane even in ornamental plantations. Notwithstanding its backwardness in coming out in the 
spring, and the sudden decay of its leaves in autumn, yet for its goodly appearance, and the great 
size to which it will grow, the Oriental Plane deserves a place in all large plantations, or shady 
recesses, especially near the mansion, or on a moist soil and near streams of water, in which situations 
it will arrive at a prodigious magnitude. 
Lady Craven speaks of some which she saw in the Turkish dominions of a size so gigantic, that 
the largest trees we have in England, placed near them, would appear only like broomsticks. 
Pausanias tells us of a Plane-tree of extraordinary size and beauty in Arcadia, supposed to be 
planted by Menelaus; so that the age of the tree, when Pausanias saw it, must have been about thir¬ 
teen hundred years.J That the tree was large and handsome we may believe, but no tradition can be 
sufficient to persuade us that a Plane-tree ever attained such an age, provided it was sound when 
Pausanias saw it. 
Pliny mentions other remarkable Plane-trees: as one in Lycia that had mouldered away into an 
* 
* 
,i» 
Martyn’s Virg. Georg. 70. p. 121. 
Gilpin's Forest Scenery, Vol. I. p. 50, and 125. 
6 P 
■f* Hort. Kew. 
