518 
immense cave, eighty feet in circumference. Licinius Mutianus, governor of the province, with eigh¬ 
teen others dined commodiously on the benches of pumice placed round the body of it. 
Caligula also had a tree of this sort at his villa near Velitrae. The hollow of the trunk held fifteen 
persons at dinner, with a proper suite of attendance.* 
That which is called Maple-leaved Plane is certainly a seminal variety of the Eastern Plane, for 
the seeds which scattered from a large tree of this variety in the Chelsea garden have produced plants 
of the common sort several times. The Maple-leaved Plane has not its leaves so deeply cut as those 
of the Eastern Plane: they are divided into five segments, pretty deep, but are not lobed, like those 
of the Occidental Plane. The petioles are much longer than in either of the species, and the upper 
surface of the leaves is rougher, so that they might be taken for different sorts, if we did not know 
that they rose from the same seeds. 
The Spanish Plane-tree has larger leaves than either of the sorts; and are more divided than those 
of the Occidental, but not so much as those of the Oriental. Some of the leaves are cut into five, 
and others into three lobes only; these are sharply indented on the edges, and are of a light green; 
the foot-stalks are short, and covered with a short down. This is by some called the middle Plane- 
tree, from the leaves being of a shape between the two species. 
Species 2. American Plane Tree. (Platanus Occidentalism 
The Occidental Plane-tree grows naturally in most parts of North America; this tree also grows 
to a large size, the stem very straight, and of equal girt most part of the length; the bark is smooth, 
and annually falls off like that of the other: the branches extend wide on every side ; the young ones 
have a brownish bark, but the old ones have a grey bark; the foot-stalks of the leaves are three inches 
long; the leaves are seven inches long, and ten broad: they are cut into three lobes or angles, and 
have several acute indentures on their borders, with three longitutinal midribs, and many strong 
lateral veins. The leaves are of a light green on their upper side, and paler on their under. The 
flowers grow in round balls like the former, but are smaller. The leaves and flowers come out at the 
same time with the former, and the seeds ripen in autumn. 
Kalm, who calls it the Virginian Maple, says that it grows in plenty on the shores of the Dela¬ 
ware. The English Americans call it Button-wood, (from the catkins or aments) or Water Beech, 
which is more common. It grows mostly in low places, but especially on the edge of rivers and 
brooks. It is easily transplanted to drier places, if the soil be good; and as the leaves are large and 
the foliage thick, it is planted about houses and in gardens, to afford a pleasant shade in the hot 
season. It likewise grows in marshes and in swampy fields, with the Ash and Red Maple. It is 
remarkable for its quick growth; and is frequently as tall and thick as the best Fir trees. There are 
such numbers of them on the low meadows between Philadelphia and the ferry at Gloucester, on 
both sides of the road, that in summer it is a shady walk all the way. In Philadelphia near the 
Swedish church, some great Plane-trees stand on the shore of the river. 
It appears from Parkinson tnat the American Plane was introduced here before 1640, by Mr. 
John Tradescant, junior.-)" Johnson, in his additions to Gerarde’s Herbal, printed in 1633, mentions 
that there were two young ones at that time growing with Mr. Tradescant. He does not seem indeed 
to have known that these were of a different species from those which Gerarde says his servant 
William Marshal (whom he sent into the Mediterranean sea as surgeon unto the Hercules of London) 
* Gilpin s Forest Scenery, Vol. I. p. 123—125. 
J- Hort. Kew. 
