519 
found growing in Lepanto, hard by the sea side, at the entrance into the town, a port of Moreau 
and from thence brought one of the rough buttons, being the fruit thereof. These were Oriental 
Planes; but there is no doubt that the young trees growing with Mr.Tradescant were Occidental 
Planes. 
In more than a century and half it has not become very common, although, as Mr. Marshall 
says, it is particularly refreshing to the eye, and truly ornamental; the bright colour giving variety 
to groves and masses of wood; and in single trees or groups being singularly elegant. 
The stem of the Occidental Plane, says Mr. Gilpin, is very picturesque: it is smooth and of a 
light ash colour, and has the property of throwing off its bark in scales; thus naturally cleansing 
itself, at least its larger boughs, from moss and other parasitical incumbrances. 
No tree forms a more pleasing shade. It is full-leafed, and its leaf is large, smooth, of a fine 
texture, and seldom injured by insects. Its lower branches shooting horizontally, soon take a direc¬ 
tion to the ground; and the spray, by twisting about in various forms, fills up every little vacuity 
with shade. At the same time it must be owned, the twisting of its branches is a disadvantage, 
when the tree is stripped of its leaves, and reduced to a skeleton. Nor indeed does its foliage, from 
the largeness of the leaf, and the mode of its growth, make the most picturesque appearance in sum¬ 
mer. The summer-leaf also both of this and the Oriental Plane, wears so light a hue, as to mix ill 
with the foliage of the Oak, the Elm, and other trees. On the skirts of a plantation they sometimes 
form, during the summer, a disagreeable spot. In autumn, their leaves receive a mellow tint, which 
harmonizes very well with the wanning colour of the wood. 
One of the finest Occidental Planes, adds Mr. Gilpin, stands in my own garden at Vicar's-hill, 
where its boughs, feathering to the ground, form a canopy of above fifty feet in diameter. 
At Shad well Lodge in Norfolk, the seat of John Buxton, Esq. a Plane-tree was planted in April 
1744; it was then eight feet high. In April 1775, the height was sixty-five feet nine inches; the 
girt at half a foot from the ground was seven feet nine inches; at twenty feet, four feet six 
inches.* 
CULTURE. 
The Eastern Plane-tree is propagated either from seeds, or by layers, the latter of which is gene¬ 
rally practised in England; though the plants thus raised seldom make so large straight trees, as 
those which are produced from seeds; but it has been generally thought that the seeds of this tree 
were not productive, because they have not been sown at a proper season, nor managed in a right 
manner; for I have had thousands of the young plants spring up from the seeds of a large tree, which 
scattered upon the ground in a moist place: and I since find, that if these seeds are sown soon after 
they are ripe, in a moist shady situation, they will rise extremely well; and the plants thus obtained, 
will make a considerable progress after the second year, being much hardier and less liable to lose 
their tops in winter, than those which are propagated by layers. And since the seeds of this tree 
frequently ripen well in England, they may be propagated in as great plenty as any other 
forest-tree. 
The Plane-tree will grow extremely well from cuttings, if they are planted the beginning of 
October upon a moist soil; and if they are watered in dry weather, will make a prodigious progress; 
so that in a few years from the planting, they will afford noble trees for planting avenues, and other 
shady walks; and their trunks are perfectly straight, growing nearly of the same size to a consider. 
* Hunter's Evelyn. 
