620 
PLATANUS. 
tinguiflied without glades; they come out a little before 
the leaves, which is the beginning of June; in warm 
fummers the feeds will ripen late in autumn, and, if left 
upon the trees, will remain till fpring, when the balls fall 
to pieces, and the briftly down which furrounds the feeds 
helps to tranfport them to a great diftance w'ith the wind. 
Du Roi remarks, that the leaves vary in figure, but are 
always fmooth ; and that the peduncles are brown. 
Pallas fays, that the leaves, when young, are w’hite-to- 
mentofe; but, when old, the petioles only are fo; that 
the peduncles are fmooth ; that it differs molt from the 
occidental plane-tree in having fcarcely any ftipules on 
the adult branches; and that the wood is very hard, 
reddifh, with browmifh-grey tranfverfe ftreaks. Gsertner 
thus defcribes the fruit. Pericarpium none, unlefs the 
fuberous or corky cruft of the feed be taken for it. 
Common integument globular, corky, attended on every 
fide by the feeds heaped together very clofely, when 
mature naked, without any vifible fcale. Seed naked, 
club-fhaped, from an awl-fhaped peduncle, compreffed a 
little or fomewhat angular, thickened into a globular 
head, and dagger-pointed with the permanent flyle or 
ftigma ; at the bafe crinite with fulvous fimple ftraight 
hairs, not exceeding the head in length. Integument 
double : outer thick, fomewhat woody, not opening, but 
eafily fplit from the bafe upwards, fo that it may be taken 
for a capfule: inner membranaceous, very thin, pale. 
Albumen none. Embryo oblong, comprefled, inverted, 
yellowifh, much fhorter than the (hell of the feed. Coty¬ 
ledons linear, fomewhat leafy. Radicle roundifh, fuperior. 
Native of the Levant and many other parts of Afia ; 
on Mount Taurus, Athos, Macedonia, Lemnos, Crete, 
moftly near water; in Perfia, and perhaps Georgia, where 
there are very handfome trees, four yards in circum¬ 
ference; on Mount Caucafus, where it is very common, 
it takes the form of a large lhrub, as the American plane 
does in the gardens at St. Peterfburg. The plane-tree 
has always been much efteemed in the eaftern countries, 
where it grows naturally, for its beauty, and grateful 
fhade. Evelyn, Miller, and Gilpin, have related at 
length, from A£lian, the adoration that was paid by 
Xerxes to a tree of this fort in Phrygia; and, when¬ 
ever any fumptuous buildings were erefted in that 
country, the porticoes, which opened to the air, generally 
terminated in groves of lines of thefe trees. It was no 
lefs efteemed in Italy after it was introduced there. 
Pliny informs us, that it was firft brought over the 
Ionian fea into the ifland of Diomedes, for a monument 
to that hero; thence it paffed into Sicily, and fo into 
Italy. It was planted near their houfes, and in rows for 
walks; and was confecrated as well to the refrelhment 
of the philofopher in the academic groves, as to the 
pleafure of the Bacchanalian, who held his revels under 
its fhade, and with appropriate gratitude fed its roots with 
wine. In thefe countries the trees grow very large; and 
Pliny affirms, that there is no tree whatfoever which fo 
well defends us from the heat of the fun in fummer, or 
thatadmitsit more kindly in winter ; the branches being 
produced at a proportional diftance to the largenefs of 
the leaves; (which holds good in all forts of trees yet 
known:) fo that, when the leaves are fallen in winter, 
the branches eafily admit the rays of the fun. Virgil calls 
the Platanus fterilis, not becaufe it bears no feed, but no 
fruit that is eatable. 
Mr. Miller fays, it is generally fuppofed that the intro- 
dudlion 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 flourifhing fome years 
fince, but have lately been deftroyed. Mr. Evelyn alfo 
fays, “ the introduction of this true plane among us, is 
perhaps due to the great lord-chancellor Bacon, who 
planted thofe (till flourifhing ones (1706) at Verulam.” 
He adds, that he owed a hopeful plant then growing at 
his own villa to the late fir George Crook, of Oxfordfhire. 
He fpeaks of the true plane of antiquity as being very 
rare in England in his time, and of the American plane 
as more common. Mr. Miller alfo informs us, that there 
were very few large oriental plane-trees to be feen; 
which he thinks might be owing to the great efteein 
perfons of the laft age had for the lime-tree, which 
being much eafier to propagate, and of quicker growth 
during the three or four firft years, became more fafhion- 
able for avenues and fhady walks near habitations. But 
we had the oriental plane-tree in England certainly 
before the time of lord Bacon; for it appears from 
Turner’s Herbal, that it was cultivated here as early as 
1562; whereas the chancellor was born only in 1561. 
The plantations however at Verulam might be the firft 
of any note or confideration. Mr. Boutcherfrom Evelyn, 
and he from Ricciolus, fays, that theTurks ufed to build 
moft of their fliips with this timber; that it was hard, 
clofe, takes a fine polifh, and is valuable for a variety of 
ufeful purpofes. Mr. Marfhall, feemingly with more 
reafon, ranks this wood with that of the great maple, 
vulgarly called fycamore, and in the north of England 
plane-tree. With us it is confidered merely as an orna¬ 
mental tree, and is not fo common as the American 
plane, even in ornamental plantations. Notwithftanding 
its backwardnefs in coming out in the fpring, and the 
fudden decay of its leaves in autumn, yet for its goodly 
appearance, and the great fize to which it will grow, the 
oriental plane deferves a place in all large plantations, or 
fhady recedes, efpecially near the inanfion, or on a moift 
foil, and near ftreams of water, in which fituations it will 
arrive at a prodigious magnitude. Lady Craven fpeaks 
of fome which fhe faw in the Turkifh dominions of a fize 
fo gigantic, that “ the largeft trees we have in England, 
placed near them, would appear only like broomfticks.” 
Paufanius tells us of a plane-tree of extraordinary fize 
and beauty in Arcadia, fuppofed to have been planted by 
Menelaus; fo that the age of the tree, when Paufanias 
faw it, muft have been about thirteen hundred years. 
That the tree was large and handfome we may believe, 
but no tradition can be fufficient to perfuade us that a 
plane-tree ever attained fuch an age, provided it was found 
when Paufanius faw it. Pliny mentions other remark¬ 
able plane-trees: as one in Lycia that had mouldered 
away into an immenfe cave, eighty feet in circumference. 
Licinius Mutianus, governor of that province, with 
eighteen others, dined commodioufly on the benches of 
pumice placed round the body of it. Caligula alfo had a 
tree of this fort at his villa near Velitrae. The hollow 
of the trunk held fifteen perfons at dinner, with a proper 
luite of attendants. 
/ 3 . P. acerifolia, the maple-leaved plane-tree : leaves 
tranfverfe. This is certainly a feminal variety of the 
eaftern plane, for the feeds which fcattered from a large 
tree of this variety in the Chelfea garden have produced 
plants of the common fort feveral times. The maple- 
leaved plane has not its leaves fo deeply cut as thofe of 
the eaftern plane : they are divided into five fegments, 
pretty deep, but are not lobed, like thofe of the occi¬ 
dental plane. The petioles are much longer than in 
either of the fpecies, and the upper furface of the leaves 
is rougher; fothat they might be taken for different forts, 
if we did not know that they role from the fame feeds. 
It is a native of the Levant, where it was noticed by 
Tournefort. The Hort. Kew. mentions it as cultivated 
here before 1724. Willdenow fays it is hardy, forming 
a lofty tree, in Germany; and adds, that the leaves are 
like thofe of the Acer faccharinum, or fugar-maple. 
y. P. undulata, the wave-leaved plane-tree: leaves 
attenuated at the bafe, waved. This variety has larger 
leaves than either of the other forts ; they are more 
divided than thofe of the occidental, but not fo much as 
thofe of the oriental. Some of the leaves are cut into 
five, and others into three lobes only; thefe are fliarply 
indented on the edges, and are of a light green; the 
foot-ftalks are ftiort, and covered with a fhort down. 
Gathered by Haflelquift in the Levant. Miller is faid 
to have cultivated it in 1739. In fome points this 
anfwers to his“Spanilh, or middle, plane-tree but we 
