CHAP. CVII.

platana'cea:. pla'tanus.

2039

he had ever done in his most magnificent marble saloon.” {fun., lib. xii. c. 1.)

“ The emperor Caligula found, near Velitrae , an extraordinary plane tree. Ithad some of its branches formed like a roof, and others as seats. In thissaloon the emperor gave a supper to fifteen persons, which he called the Feastof the Nest, because it had been given in a tree (Q.uam ccenam appellavit illenidum).” (Id.) Pliny also speaks of a tree in Arcadia, which, he says, wasplanted by Agamemnon ; and he states that canoes, and other vessels for thesea, were formed of the excavated trunks of the plane tree. Cicero mentionsthe plane tree as well calculated to afford a thick shade, by the extent of itsbranches, and the thickness of its foliage.

The chinar, or Oriental plane tree, has been cultivated in Persia from theearliest period; and Evelyn states that “ a worthy knight, who staid at Ispahan when that famous city was infected with a raging pestilence, told” him “that,since they have planted a greater number of these noble trees about it, theplague has not come nigh their dwellings.” (Hunt. Evel., ii. p. 56.) In theDictionnairc des Eaux et Forets, the same observation is attributed to theChevalier Chardin, who was probably the “ worthy knight” alluded to by Eve-lyn. This gentleman, who was also called Sir John Chardin, and who publisheda folio edition of his travels, written in French, in London , in 1686, observes ofthe gardens of the Persians , that they are generally divided in the middle by anavenue of chinar trees ; and that, as the Persians do not use their gardens forwalking in, but as a place for sitting in and breathing the fresh air, they generallyseat themselves under these trees. Sir Robert Ker Porter found the Persiangardens intersected by avenues of plane trees in different directions; andMorier, Colonel Johnson, and Sir William Ousely, agree in attributing tothem this characteristic, and in describing the Persians as preferring the chinaras a tree to worship under. Sir William Ousely mentions that on these treesthe devotees sacrifice their old clothes by hanging them to the branches;and that the trunks of favourite chinar trees are commonly found studdedwith rusty nails and tatters; the clothes sacrificed being left nailed to thetree till they drop to pieces of themselves.

In Fraser’s Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia, published in 1834,when speaking of the general effect of the scenery in Persia , the author says :“ No trees gladden the landscape, except the tall poplar, or the stately chinar(Platanus orientalis), which rise above the hovels of the peasants; or the fruittrees of their orchards; or, perhaps, a few of other sorts which may have beenplanted on the margin of a watercourse, to supply the little timber required :and these, dotting the wide plain with their dark foliage, convey to the minda melancholy, rather than cheering, impression.” (p. 28.)

The Oriental plane tree appears to have been introduced into England aboutthe middle of the sixteenth century; as Turner says, in his Herball. (the firstpart of which was published under the title of the Names of Herbes, as earlyas 1541, though the entire work was not finished till 1568): “ I have scenetwo very yong trees in England, which were called there Playn trees;whose leaves in all poyntes were lyke unto the leaves of the Italian Playntre. And it is doubtles that these two trees were either brought out ofItaly, or of soin farr countre beyond Italy , whereunto the frieres, monks,and chanons went a pilgrimage.” Gerard does not mention having seenthe Oriental plane growing in England; but he tells us that his “ servant ,William Marshall, whom he sent into the Mediterranean Sea , as surgeon untothe Hercules of London , found divers trees hereof growing in Lepanto, hardby the sea side, at the entrance into the towne, a port of Morea, being partot Greece ; and from thence brought one of these rough buttons, being thefruit thereof.” ( Herball , p. 1489.) Jonson, in his edition of Gerard, adds tothis passage, that Mr. Tradescant had then (1633) trees of this plane growingin his garden; but, according to Martyn’s Miller, this is evidently a mistake,the trees in Tradescant ’s garden being the Occidental plane, which was intro-duced by him about this period. In Parkinson’s Theatrum Botanimm, pub-lished in 1640, both the Eastern and Western plane trees are figured ; and the