the head 60 ft.: in Yorkshire, at Grimston, 14 years planted, it is 45 ft. high.-In Scotland. In the environs of Edinburgh, at Gosford House, 30 years old, it is 25 ft. high, with a trunk 2 ft. 3 in. in circumference; at Biel, it is 64 ft. high: in Banffshire, at Gordon Castle, 66 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 2 in., and that of the bead 64 ft.: in Ross-shire, at Brahan Castle, 50 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft, and of the head 40 ft.-In Ireland. South of Dublin: in Kilkenny, at Woodstock Park, 70 years planted, it is 68 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft., and of the head 48 ft.: in Tipperary, in Higgins's Nursery, Clonmel, 50 years planted, it is 70 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 5 ft., and that of the head 63 ft. North of Dublin: in the county of Down, at Castle Ward, 80 years planted, it is 32 ft high, the diameter of the trunk 2ft., and that of the head 54 ft.: in Louth, at Oriel Temple, 36 years planted, it is 34 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 ft., and that of the head 28 ft. -In France, in the Jardin des Plantes, 130 years old, it is 74 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 8 in. - In Hanover, at Harbeke, 8 years planted, it is 7 ft. high; in the Botanic Garden, Göttingen, 20 years planted, it is 12 ft. high-In Austria, at Vienna, in the University Botanic Garden, 35 years planted, it is 36 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 13 in.; in Rosenthal's Nursery, 20 years planted, it is 27 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 ft., and of the head 24 ft.; at Brück on the Leytha, 15 years old, it is 18 ft. high.-In Sweden, at Lund, in the Botanic Garden, 42 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 14 in., and that of the head 28 ft.-In Italy, in Lombardy, at Monza, 29 years planted, it is 80 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 6 in., and of the head 106 ft.

Commercial Statistics. Plants raised from layers of the species, in the London nurseries, are 1s. each; and of P. o. cuneàta, 1s. 6d. each at Bollwyller, from 1 franc to 1 franc and 50 cents; and at New York, 50 cents.

2. P. OCCIDENTALIS L. The Western Plane.

Identification. Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. 475.; Hort. Cliff., 78.; Roy Lugd., 7.; Grön, Virg., 151.; Kalm It, 2. p. 198.; Mill. Dict., No. 2.; Du Roy Harbk., 2. p. 134.; Medic, in Obs. Soc. Econ. Lutr., 1774, p. 239.; N. Du Ham. 2. p. 5.

Synonymes. P. occidentalis seu virginiensis Park, Theatr., 1427., Du Ham. Arb., t. 35.; Button. wood, Water Beech, Sycamore, Cotton Tree, Amer.; Platane de Virginie, Fr. Derivation. Button-wood refers to the smooth round heads of flowers, which resemble the globular buttons formerly in use, and still seen in some military costumes; Sycamore to the resemblance of the leaves to those of that tree; and Cotton Tree to the down detached in the course of the summer from the leaves.

Engravings. Cat. Carol., t. 56.; Dend. Brit., t. 100.; Michx. N. Amer. Syl., 2. t. 63.; our fig. 1959.; and the plate of this species in our last Volume. In fig. 1959., a represents a transverse section of the female catkin in flower; b, the same in fruit; c, the female flower and scale; d, the stamen and scale; e, the longitudinal section of a seed; and f, an entire seed.

Spec. Char., &c. Leaves 5-angled, obsoletely lobed, dentate, wedgeshaped at the base; downy beneath. (Willd.) A tree, a native of North America, where it grows to the height of 70 ft. or 80 ft.; with a widely spreading head. It flowers in May; and ripens its seeds in October. Introduced before 1636. The Occidental plane is easily distinguished from the Oriental plane, by its leaves being larger, and less deeply lobed (see fig.1951. a. in p. 2033.); and by the

red colour of their petioles; the petioles of P. orientàlis being green. The fruit is, also, much larger, and rather smoother.

Variety.

P. o. 2 tortuosa; Platane tortillard, Fr.-This variety, according to Bosc, was found by Malesherbes in a bed of seedlings. The stem is full of knots, which render the fibres tortuous, and, consequently, difficult to split, like those of the Ulmus campestris tortudsa, mentioned in p. 1376.; and, like that variety, it is thought to be suitable for the naves of wheels. We have not heard of its being in cultivation in French nurseries. In the Nouveau Du Hamel, it is stated that M. Daubenton, fils, who raised many plants of the Occidental platanus for seed, found the varieties almost infinite.

Description, &c. The American, or Western, plane, in magnitude and general appearance, bears so close a resemblance to the Oriental plane, that, by many persons, they are confounded together. The former, however, is a larger tree; of much more rapid growth than the Oriental plane; with broader and less deeply cut leaves, red petioles, and fruit comparatively smooth, and considerably larger. The bark is said to scale off in larger pieces, and the wood to be more curiously veined. In all other respects, the descriptive particulars of both trees are the same. The rate of growth of P. occidentalis, when placed near water, is so rapid, that in 10 years it will attain the height of 40 ft.; and a tree in the Palace Garden at Lambeth, near a pond, in 20 years had at

tained the height of 80 ft.; with a trunk 8 ft. in circumference at 3 ft. from the ground; and the diameter of the head 48 ft. This was in 1817. (See Neill's Hort. Tour, p. 9.) The palace gardens at Lambeth have, since that period, been surrounded by numerous buildings, including several manufactories, which have killed many trees, and injured all of them, more or less, by their smoke. Nevertheless, in May, 1837, when we saw this tree, and had the portrait, fig. 1960., taken of it, it was estimated at upwards of 100 ft. in height. A tree in the Chelsea Botanic Garden, planted by Miller, in a confined situation, but having its roots within reach of the Thames, is estimated at upwards of 115 ft. in height, with a trunk nearly 5 ft. in diameter at a foot from the ground. When cut down, the Western plane stoles like the other species, and produces much more vigorous shoots; but, as these seldom ripen completely, they are very liable to be injured by frost. Varennes de Fenille mentions two trees of the American plane, which, after being 28 years planted, measured, the one 5 ft. 7 in., and the other 5 ft. 5 in., at 2 ft.

from the ground, or about 1 ft. 10 in. in diameter; which gives nine lines and a half, or more than three quarters of an inch, of increase annually.

Geography. The American plane is found over an immense tract of land in North America, comprising the Atlantic and western states, and extending beyond the Mississippi. "The nature of the button-wood," says Michaux, "confines it to moist and cool grounds, where the soil is loose, deep, and fertile; the luxuriance of its vegetation depending on a combination of these circumstances. It is never found upon dry lands of an irregular surface, among white and red oaks and walnuts; it is also more rare in the mountainous tract of the Alleghanies than in the flat country. It is remarked, in that part of Virginia which lies upon the road from Baltimore to Petersburg, that, though the button-wood is abundant in the swamps, its growth is stunted; and that its trunk does not, in general, exceed 8 in. or 10 in. in diameter. Farther south, in the lower parts of the Carolinas and of Georgia, it is not abundant even on the sides of the rivers; and is not seen in the branch swamps, already mentioned, which intersect the pine barrens, and which are principally covered with the small magnolia (Magnòlia glaúca), the red bay (Laúrus caroliniénsis), the loblolly bay (Gordònia Lasiánthus), the red maple (Acer rubrum), &c. The reason that the button-wood is not found in these small marshes is, perhaps, that the layer of vegetable mould, which is black and always miry, is not suf ficiently thick and substantial to support its growth; and that the heat, in this part of the southern states, is excessive. The button-wood is in no part of North America more abundant and more vigorous than along the great rivers of Pennsylvania and of Virginia; though in the more fertile valleys of the west its vegetation is, perhaps, still more luxuriant; especially on the banks of the Ohio, and of the rivers which empty into it. The bottoms which are watered by these rivers are covered with dark forests, composed of trees of an extraordinary size. The soil is very deep, loose, of a brown colour, and unctuous to the touch: it appears to have been formed by the slime deposited in the course of ages, at the annual overflowing of the rivers. The leaves, which every autumn form a thick layer upon the surface, and the old trees, that fall by the weight of years, and crumble into vegetable mould, give to this soil, already so fertile, a degree of fecundity which is without example in Europe, and which is manifested by prodigies of vegetation. The margin of the great rivers of the West is occupied by the willow, after which comes the white maple (Acer eriocárpum), and next the button-wood; but this arrangement is not uniformly observed; and the maple alone, or, as it more frequently happens, mingled with the button-wood, sometimes grows upon the brink. Among the trees which compose these forests, the three species mentioned are least liable to injury from the continued presence of water; and, by their position, they are exposed to have their bases every year inundated by the swelling of the rivers. In these situations, the button-wood is constantly found to be the loftiest and largest tree of the United States." (North Amer. Syl., ii. p. 58.)

The

History. In the Atlantic states, this tree is commonly known by the name of button-wood; and sometimes, in Virginia, by that of water beech. On the banks of the Ohio, and in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, it is most frequently called sycamore, and by some persons plane, tree. The French of Canada and of Upper Louisiana give it the name of the cotton tree. The first of these denominations appears to be the most widely diffused, and, in fact, to be that by which the tree is most generally known in America. name cotton tree alludes to the thick down which covers the under surface of the leaves when they first expand, and which becomes gradually detached from them in the course of the summer. In some parts of the United States, where the tree is very abundant, the inhabitants, according to Michaux, regard it with dread, as they think this down, detached and floating in the air, has a tendency to produce irritation of the lungs, and, finally, consumption. The American plane was one of the trees discovered and figured by Catesby in his Natural History of Carolina (i. t. 56.); and it was introduced about 1630,

by Mr. John Tradescant, in whose garden two small plants were growing in 1636, when Johnson published his edition of Gerard's Herball. These plants were again spoken of by Parkinson in 1640. It was afterwards so much propagated, that, in Evelyn's time, it had become more common than P. orientalis. The tree propagating readily by cuttings, and growing with great rapidity, was, in Miller's time, and indeed till 1809, considered hardier than the Oriental plane; but, in the May of that year (not June, as stated in the Planter's Kalendar), a severe frost killed back the young shoots of many of the largest plants of this species in England; particularly those in Richmond Park, at Kew, at Syon House, at Stowe, at Pain's Hill, and at Claremont. There are still large trees, however, in the Chelsea Garden, in the grounds of Lambeth Palace, at Deepdene, and various other places. In Scotland, where trees of both P. orientàlis and P. occidentalis were standing near each other, the former escaped; but the latter were generally injured, and many either died the same year, or, after making an ineffectual effort to push, in the summer of the year following, viz. 1810. "It is very singular," Sang observes, "that of the P. occidentalis the largest trees only were killed. Trees of from 20 ft. to 25 ft. in height were little hurt; and smaller ones not at all, at least in every instance that came under our observation. We did not observe, or hear," he adds, "of a single Oriental plane being injured in any part of the country." (Plant. Kal., p. 99.) The severe winter of 1813-14 destroyed a number of the Occidental planes which escaped the severe frost of 1809, so that the tree is at present comparatively rare throughout Britain. An account of the damage done to the Occidental plane tree, in different parts of England, in 1809, will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1810 and 1813; from which it appears, that on the 25th of January, 1809, there was a great flood, occasioned by a sudden thaw; and in the March and April following there was very mild weather, which caused the plane trees to put out their leaves earlier than usual. This was succeeded by a severe frost in the beginning of May, which so far injured the trees, that they appeared sickly throughout all the summer; and in the spring of 1810 they almost all died.

Properties and Uses. The wood of the American plane, according to Michaux, in seasoning becomes of a dull red; but its grain is fine and close, and it is susceptible of a brighter polish than the wood of the beech, to which it bears considerable resemblance. Its concentric circles are divided into numerous sections, by fine medullary rays extending from the centre to the circumference. When the trunk is sawn in a slanting direction, these rays have a remarkable appearance. The cabinet-makers of Philadelphia, however, rarely use the wood, on account of its warping; but it is sometimes employed for bedsteads, which retain their natural colour, and are coated with varnish. The wood soon decays when exposed to the weather. Like the wood of the beech, it shrinks very much in drying, and is very apt to split. As fuel, it does not produce a very lively flame, nor does it yield much charcoal. It contains a great deal more sap wood than the beech; so much so, that a parallelopipedon of green platanus 6 in. square weighed 18 lb. 10 oz.; while a piece of beech of the same size only weighed 15 lb. 13 oz. The platanus, in drying, lost 6 lb. 15 oz., and the beech only 5 lb. 9oz.; which gives 5 lb. 6 oz. of difference in the cubic foot. The platanus weighs, when dry, 51 lb. 8 oz. per cubic foot; and in that state it is easy to work, cutting readily in every direction, and is therefore well adapted for cabinet-work. In Britain, the principal use of the platanus is as an ornamental tree; for which purpose it has all those qualities to recommend it which we have attributed to the Oriental plane, except that it is much less hardy, and, to attain a large size, requires the presence of water. As a picturesque tree, the Occidental plane is thus characterised by Gilpin. He places it after the oak, the ash, the elm, the beech, and the hornbeam, which he considers as deciduous trees of the first rank; saying of both species of platanus, that, though neither so beautiful nor so characteristic as the first-mentioned trees, they are yet worth the

notice of the picturesque eye. "The Occidental plane has a very picturesque stein. 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 encumbrances. This would be no recommendation of it in a picturesque light, if the removal of these encumbrances did not substitute as great a beauty in their room. These scales are very irregular, falling off sometimes in one part, and sometimes in another; and, as the under bark is, immediately after its excoriation, of a lighter hue than the upper, it offers to the pencil those smart touches which have so much effect in painting. These flakes, however, would be more beautiful if they fell off in a circular form, instead of a perpendicular one: they would correspond and unite better with the circular form of the bole. No tree forms a more pleasing shade than the Occidental plane. It is fullleaved; and its leaf is large, smooth, of a fine texture, and seldom injured by insects. Its lower branches, shooting horizontally, soon take a direction to the ground; and the spray seems more sedulous than that of any tree we have, by twisting about in various forms, to fill up every little vacuity with shade. At the same time, it must be owned, the twisting of its branches is a disadvantage to this tree, as we have just observed it is to the beech, when it is stripped of its leaves and reduced to a skeleton. It has not the natural appearance which the spray of the oak, and that of many other trees, discover in winter; nor, indeed, does its foliage, from the largeness of the leaf, and the mode of its growth, make the most picturesque appearance in summer. One of the finest Occidental planes I am acquainted with stands in my own garden at Vicar's Hill; where its boughs, feathering to the ground, form a canopy of above 50 ft. in diameter. The Oriental plane is a tree nearly of the same kind, only its leaf is more palmated; nor has it so great a disposition to overshadow the ground as the Occidental plane; at least, I never saw any in our climate form so noble a shade, though in the East it is esteemed among the most shady and most magnificent of trees." (Rem. on For. Scen., vol. i. p. 53.)

Soil, Situation, Propagation, &c. What has been said on these subjects as applicable to P. orientalis is equally so to this species; the chief difference being, that P. occidentalis strikes very readily from cuttings, and is much more like the willow, in requiring, when it is intended to attain a large size, to be planted near water. It is sometimes raised from seeds imported from America. A great many plants were raised in this way by Mr. Cobbett, from 1826 to 1830. The seed is imported in the globular catkins, or balls, which Cobbett broke to pieces by rubbing them with the hand to separate the down or wool, as he calls it, from the seeds. The latter, being sifted out of the wool, he soaked in lukewarm water for 48 hours; he then "took the seeds out of the water, and mixed them with finely sifted fresh earth, 10 gallons of earth to one gallon of seeds; put the mixture upon a smooth place on the bare ground; turned and remixed the heap every day for four or five days, keeping it covered with a mat whenever the turning and mixing was not going on; and as soon as a root began to appear here and there, sowed the seeds upon a bed of sifted earth, mixed with the sifted mould, just as they came out of the heap." (Woodlands, § 473.) The seeds received no other covering than the mould with which they were mixed: they were watered every evening with a fine-rosed watering-pot; and securely shaded from the sun by mats, kept from touching the ground by hoops. These mats were removed every evening about an hour after sunset, and were put on again in the morning by sunrise. In about a week, most of the seeds had germinated, and in a short time afterwards the seed leaves appeared. Being gradually inured to the sunshine, till they were hardy enough to be exposed during the whole of the day, by the month of October their growth was finished, and the wood ripe; and next summer they were fit to transplant into nursery lines. As the Occidental plane is very tender when young, Mr. Cobbett did not commence his operations with the seed till April; and, consequently, his plants were small in October; but, by sowing in frames in February, as is the prac