CHAP. CVII.

platana'ceje. pla*tanus.

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pointed lobes, or segments, the two outer of which are again slightly lobed ;the five large lobes have numerous acute indentations on their margins, andhave each a strong midrib, with many lateral veins spreading from it; theupper surface is glabrous, and of a shining green; and the under surfacepaler, and slightly tomentoseat the angles of the veins.

The flowers are produced inglobular catkins, from two tofive on an axillary peduncle,which is sometimes 6 in. long;the sexes being in distinct cat-kins. These catkins, or balls,vary very much in size, beingsometimes 4 in. in circumfe-rence, and sometimes not quite1 in. The flowers are so smallas to require a glass to dis-tinguish them. The balls ap-pear before the leaves, inspring; and the seeds, in fineseasons, ripen late in autumn; the balls remaining on the tree till the fol-lowing spring ; and, when they open, the bristly down which surrounds theseeds, helps to convey them to a distance. The seeds, when deprived of theirdown, 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 theshape 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, attain-ing the height of 30 ft. in ten years, and arriving at the height of 60 ft. or70 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 ofthe oldest is that still existing at Lee Court, in Kent, which was mentionedby Evelyn, in 1683, as one of the oldest introduced into this country, and asbeing celebrated both for its age and its magnitude. (See Recorded Trees.')Some of the largest trees in the neighbourhood of London are at MountGrove, Hampstead, where they are between 70 ft. and 80 ft. in height. The

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