2016

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

by Mr. John Tradescant, in whose garden two small plants were growing in1636, when Johnson published his edition of Gerard’s Ilerball. These plantswere again spoken of by Parkinson in 1640. It was afterwards so muchpropagated, that, in Evelyn’s time, it had become more common than P. orien-talis. The tree propagating readily by cuttings, and growing with greatrapidity, was, in Miller’s time, and indeed till 1809, considered hardier thanthe Oriental plane; but, in the May of that year (not June, as stated in thePlanter’s Kalendar), a severe frost killed back the young shoots of many ofthe largest plants of this species in England; particularly those in RichmondPark, at Kew, at Syon House, at Stowe, at Pain’s Hill, and at Claremont. Thereare still large trees, however, in the Chelsea Garden, in the grounds of LambethPalace, at Deepdene, and various other places. In Scotland, where treesof both P. orientalis and P. occidentalis were standing near each other, theformer escaped; but the latter were generally injured, and many either died thesame year, or, after making an ineffectual effort to push, in the summer ofthe 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 leastin every instance that came under our observation. We did not observe,or hear,” he adds, “ of a single Oriental plane being injured in any partof the country.” {Plant. Kal., p. 99.) The severe winter of 1813-14 de-stroyed a number of, the Occidental planes which escaped the severe frostof 1809, so that the tree is at present comparatively rare throughout Britain.An account of the damage done to the Occidental plane tree, in differentparts of England, in 1809, will be found in the Gentleman’s Magazine for1810 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 andApril following there was very mild weather, which caused the plane trees toput out their leaves earlier than usual. This was succeeded by a severe frostin the beginning of May, which so far injured the trees, that they appearedsickly throughout all the summer; and in the spring of 1810 they almost alldied.

Properties and Uses. The wood of the American plane, according toMichaux, 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 whichit bears considerable resemblance. Its concentric circles are divided intonumerous sections, by fine medullary rays extending from the centre to thecircumference. When the trunk is sawn in a slanting direction, these rayshave a remarkable appearance. The cabinet-makers of Philadelphia, how-ever, rarely use the wood, on account of its warping; but it is sometimesemployed for bedsteads, which retain their natural colour, and are coated withvarnish. The wood soon decays when exposed to the weather. Like thewood 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 pa-rallelopipedon of green platanus 6 in. square weighed 181b. 10 oz.; while apiece of beech of the same size only weighed 15 lb. 13oz. The platanus, indrying, lost 61b. 15 oz., and the beech only 51b. 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 inevery direction, and is therefore well adapted for cabinet-work. In Britain,the principal use of the platanus is as an ornamental tree ; for which purposeit has all those qualities to recommend it which we have attributed to theOriental 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 planeis 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 thefirst rank ; saying of both species of platanus, that, though neither so beauti-ful nor so characteristic as the first-mentioned trees, they are yet worth the