ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. CHAP. CVI. OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER GARRYA`CEÆ. GA'RRY Douglas. Flowers unisexual; those of the two sexes upon distinct plants. Male. Flowers in pendulous catkin-like racemes within connate bracteas. Calyx 4-leaved. Stamens 4.- Female? Flowers in pendulous catkin-like racemes, within connate bracteas. Calyx connate with the Ovary, 2-toothed. Ovary 1-celled. Styles 2, setaceous. Ovules 2, pendulous, with funiculi as long as themselves. Fruit a berried pericarp, not opening, containing 2 seeds. Embryo very minute, in the base of a great mass of fleshy albumen. Species, 1. A native of the west side of the dividing mountain range of North America, in temperate latitudes. A shrub. Leaves opposite, without stipules, persistent. Wood without distinct concentric zones, or vasiform tissue (dotted ducts). (Lindley's Nat. Syst. of Botany, p. 173.) GENUS I. GA'RRYA Doug. THE GARRYA. Lin. Syst. Dia cia Tetrándria, Identification. Lindl. in Bot. Reg., t. 1686. Derivation. Named by Mr. Douglas in compliment to Nicholas Garry, Esq., Secretary to the Hudson's Bay Company, to whose kindness and assistance he was much indebted during his travels in North-west America. Description, &c. An evergreen shrub, with thick coriaceous leaves, like some species of evergreen viburnum. 1. G. ELLIPTICA Doug. The elliptic-leaved Garrya. Identification. Doug. MS.; Lindl. Bot. Reg., t. 1686. Description, &c. A shrub, hitherto seen only from 3 ft. to 4 ft. high, but which will probably grow much higher. Branches, when young, pubescent and purplish; when older, smooth and greyish. Leaves opposite, exstipulate, wavy, on short footstalks, oblong-acute, leathery, evergreen; dark green and shining above; hoary beneath, with simple, twisted, interwoven hairs. (Lindl.) This very handsome true evergreen is a native of North Carolina, where it was discovered by Douglas. It was introduced in 1828, and flowered for the first time, in the Chiswick Garden, in October, 1834. The following observations, abridged from the Botanical Register, are by Dr. Lindley: This plant is probaby the greatest botanical curiosity sent home by Douglas; for it appears to represent a natural order altogether distinct from any previously known, and connecting certain well-known natural orders in an unexpected and satisfactory manner. In its amen- its slender pendulous catkins, many of which are 8 in. to 1 ft. in length. It was at first grown in peat, but appears to prefer a loamy soil. It is readily increased by layers; and by cuttings in sand under a hand-glass. Plants, in the Fulham Nursery, in 1837, were 21s. each. CHAP. CVII. OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER PLATANA CEE. PLA'TANUS Tourn. Flowers unisexual; those of the two sexes upon one plant, and those of each sex disposed many together, and densely, in globular catkins, that are sessile upon pendulous rachises, 2 generally upon a rachis; the flowers of each sex upon a separate rachis, produced from a separate bud.- Catkin of male flowers constituted of minute, rather fleshy, persistent bracteas, and of deciduous stamens. Filaments very short, situated between the bracteas, and of about their length. Anthers of 2 cells, longer than the filament; attached longitudinally to a connectivum, which is broader than the filament, and has a peltate tip.-Catkin of female flowers constituted of bracteas and pistils. Pistils numerous, approximately pairs. Ovary of 1 cell, including 1-2 pendulous ovules. Stigmas 2, long, thread-shaped, glanded in the upper part. Fruit a utricle, densely covered with articulated hairs, including pendulous, oblong, exalbuminous seed. Species, about 4. Natives of the temperate zones of the eastern and western hemispheres. Tall trees. Leaves alternate, palmate, annual; their margins revolute in the bud. Leaf-bud covered with a conical envelope; and immersed, in the preceding year, in the base of the petiole. (T. Nees ab Essenb. Gen. Pl. Fl. Germ., and observation.) The young shoots, leaves, and stipules are thickly covered with down, which as soon as they become fully expanded is cast off, and, floating in the atmosphere, is inhaled by gardeners and others who have occasion to be much among the trees, and produces a cough which is extremely disagreeable, and is not got rid of for several weeks. The inconvenience arising from this down, Michaux informs us, is well known in America, and it has been long familiar to French nurserymen. M. Ch. Morren, Professor of Botany at the University of Liege, gives an account of it in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Brussels, under the title of "Note sur l'Effet pernicieux du Duvet du Platane; "the only preventive which he mentions is the obvious one adopted by M. Henrard, nurseryman at Liege, viz., that of covering the nose and the mouth with a handkerchief of fine gauze. (See p. 2015., and L'Echo du Monde Savant, Jan. 6. 1838.) GENUS I. PLA'TANUS L. THE PLANE TREE. Lin. Syst. Mono'cia Polyándria. Identification. Lin. Gen., 1075.; Reich., 1173.; Schreb., 1451.; Gærtn., t. 90.; Tourn., t. 363. ; Juss., 410.; N. Du Ham., 2. p. 5.; Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p. 473. Synonyme. Platane, Fr.; Platanus, Ger. Derivation. From platys, ample; in allusion to its spreading branches and shady foliage. The name of plane tree is applied, in Scotland, to the Acer Pseudo-Plátanus (see p. 414.); probably because the French, according to Parkinson, first called that the plane tree, from the mistake of Tragus, who fancied, from the broadness of its leaves, that it was the plane tree of the ancients. Description, &c. Lofty deciduous trees, with widely spreading branches, dense foliage, and bark scaling off in hard irregular patches. Natives of the east of Europe, west of Asia, and north of Africa, and of North America. In Britain, they are chiefly planted for ornament, and they succeed in any free moist soil, in a sheltered situation. They are readily propagated by layers, or even by cuttings, and sometimes by seeds. The cause of the falling off of the bark, Dr. Lindley states to be the rigidity of its tissue; on account of which it is incapable of stretching as the wood beneath it increases in diameter. (Nat. Syst., ed. 2., p. 187.) There are only two species introduced into Europe; one of which, P. orientális, is found to be hardier than P. occidentalis, though the latter grows more rapidly, attains a larger size, and may be propagated much more readily by cuttings. Both species ripen seeds in 1952 JL Britain, in fine seasons. P. occidentalis is readily known from P. orientális, in the winter season, by its bark scaling off much less freely, or, in young or middle-sized trees, scarcely at all; and, in the summer season, by its leaves being but slightly lobed (see fig. 1952. a), instead of being palmate like those of P. occidentalis, as shown in fig. 1952. b; and by its globular catkins, or balls, as they are commonly called, being nearly smooth, while those of P. orientalis are rough. The appearance of these catkins, or balls, hanging from the tree by long threads, in winter, when it is without leaves, is peculiarly graceful; whether they hang from the perpendicular or from the horizontal branches (see figs. 1953. and 1954.); reminding us of the divi ladner of Ceylon, the Tabernæmontàna alternifolia of botanists (fig. 1954.); which, it is fabled, was the forbidden fruit of Paradise. (See Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 449.) It is a singular fact, that many of the large trees of P. occidentalis in Britain, more especially in England, were so far injured by a frost in May, 1809, that they have since died. 1. P. ORIENTALIS L. The Oriental Plane. Identification. Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p. 473.; Hort. Cliff., 447.; Roy Lugdb., 78.; Hasselq. It., 487.; Gron. Orient., 293.; Mill. Dict., No. 1.; Hort. Kew., 3. p. 364; N. Du Ham., 2. p. 1. Synonymes. Plátanus orientalis vèrus Park. Theatr., 1427., Du Ham. Arb., 2. t. 33.; Platane de l'Orient, Fr.; Morgenlandischer Platanus, Ger.; Doolb, Arabic; Chinar, Persian. Engravings. Du Ham. Arb., t. 33.; N. Du Ham., 2. t. 1.; Dend. Brit., t. 101.; our fig. 1954. ; and the plates of this species in our last Volume. In fig 1955. a shows the female catkins transversely cut, so as to show the position of the flowers on the orbicular receptacle; b shows a section of the female catkin in seed; c, a scale and pistil; d, stamen and scale; e, the longitudinal section of a seed; and f, an entire seed. Spec. Char., &c. Leaves 5-lobed, palmate, wedge-shaped at the base; the divisions lanceolate, sinuated. Stipules nearly entire. (Willd.) A tree, growing to the height of from 60 ft. to 80 ft.; a native of the Levant; flowering in April and May, and, in some seasons, in England, ripening its seeds in October. Cultivated in British gardens before 1548. Varieties. 1953 P. o. 2 acerifolia Ait. Hort. Kew., iii. p. 364.; P. o. A'ceris fòlio Tourn. P. o. 3 hispánica; P. hispánica P. o. 4 cuneata; P. o. undulàta Ait. base; somewhat glabrous. (Willd.) This is a stunted-looking low Other Varieties might be selected from beds of seedlings, if it were thought worth while to keep them distinct; and, if a pendulous-branched or fastigiate plane could be procured, or one subevergreen, in point of variety they would be acquisitions. Description, &c. The Oriental plane is one of the noblest trees of the East, where it grows to the height of 70 ft. and upwards, with widely spreading branches and a massive trunk; forming altogether a majestic tree. The bark of the trunk is smooth, and of a whitish grey; scaling off every year in large irregular patches. The branches are numerous, round, and generally a little crooked, or zigzag, at the joints; the bark of the young shoots is brown, inclining to purple. The leaves are large, alternate, and on long petioles, which are swelled at the base, and cover the buds: they are cut into five deep 1954 pointed lobes, or segments, the two outer of which are again slightly lobed; the five large lobes have numerous acute indentations on their margins, and have each a strong midrib, with many lateral veins spreading from it; the upper surface is glabrous, and of a shining green; and the under surface paler, and slightly tomentose at the angles of the veins. The flowers are produced in globular catkins, from two to five on an axillary peduncle, which is sometimes 6 in. long; the sexes being in distinct catkins. These catkins, or balls, vary very much in size, being sometimes 4 in. in circumference, and sometimes not quite 1 in. The flowers are so small as to require a glass to distinguish them. The balls appear before the leaves, in spring; and the seeds, in fine 1955 f seasons, ripen late in autumn; the balls remaining on the tree till the following spring; and, when they open, the bristly down which surrounds the seeds, helps to convey them to a distance. The seeds, when deprived of their down, are brown, linear, smaller than those of the lettuce, and quite as light; Cobbett describes the seed of the plane tree as " a little brown thing, in the shape of a round nail without a head." The growth of the plane is very rapid; young trees, in the climate of London, under favourable circumstances, attaining the height of 30 ft. in ten years, and arriving at the height of 60 ft. or 70 ft. in 30 years. The longevity of the tree was supposed, by the ancients, to be considerable; but there are very few old trees in Britain. One of the oldest is that still existing at Lee Court, in Kent, which was mentioned by Evelyn, in 1683, as one of the oldest introduced into this country, and as being celebrated both for its age and its magnitude. (See Recorded Trees.) Some of the largest trees in the neighbourhood of London are at Mount Grove, Hampstead, where they are between 70 ft. and 80 ft. in height. The |