2042

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART HI.

as lightly as those of the birch or alder are covered, or beating them in withthe back of the spade, and not covering them at all; and protecting the bedswith litter of some sort, to exclude the frost. (See p. 1685.) The plants willcome up the following spring, and, after two years’ growth, will be fit for trans-planting into nursery lines, there to undergo the usual routine of nurseryculture. (See P. occidentals, Propagation and Culture.') Cuttings of the Orientalplane, put in in autumn, in a sandy soil, and in a shady situation, will root, butby no means readily; and, therefore, this method is never resorted to by nur-serymen. Layers soonest produce saleable plants; and this mode is almostuniversally adopted, both in Britain and on the Continent. Layers may bemade either in autumn or spring ; they root freely, producing shoots 3 ft. or4 ft. in length the first year; and they are ready to be taken off the followingautumn. After being one year in the nursery lines, they may be removed towhere they are finally to remain; but, if they are to be planted as singletrees,and separately fenced, they should be kept in the nursery till they are 15 ft.or 20 ft. high; care being taken to transplant them every year, and to prunetheir heads in proportion to the losses sustained by their roots in trans-planting. Trees so treated will seldom fail when removed to their final situ-ation ; but, if there should be any doubt of this, it may be removed, by cuttingoff the greater number of side branches from the head, shortening the leadingshoot, and coating the wounds over with a composition, to exclude the air.

Statistics. Recorded Trees. In addition to the remarkable trees recorded by the Greek andRoman authors (see p. 2037.)* the following may be noticed as having flourished in more moderntimes. Hasselquist mentions a plane tree in the island of Cos (now Stanchio ), the circumferenceof the trunk of which was 25| British feet. He brought a specimen of the tree to Linnaeus ;and it is now in the Linnaean herbarium. The celebrated plane tree at Buyukdfere, or the GreatValley, is mentioned by Olivier, and, after him, by Pocqueville,'Hobhouse,and various other writers.Olivier says that the trunk presents the appearance of 7 or 8 trees, having a common origin, whichhe supposes to be the stool of a decayed tree, and which were all connected at their base. Dr.Walsh, who measured the tree in 1831, found the trunk 141 ft. in circumference at the base, and itsbranches covering a space 130 ft. in diameter. The trunk, he says, “divides intol4branches, some otwhich issue from below the present surface of the soil, and some do not divide till they rise 7 ft. or8 ft. above it. One of the largest is hollowed out by fire, and affords a cabin to shelter a husband-man. The tree, if it can be considered a single plant, is certainly the largest in the world. Amongother travellers who notice it is a Frenchman who describes it, with some truth, as ‘ un temple deverdure, surmont^ d’un ddme pret & toucher les nues.’ When the Turks encamp in this valley, thehollow of this great tree affords a magnificent tent to the seraskier who commands them, with allhis officers. But what renders the tree an object of more than usual interest is, that M. De Candolleconjectures that it must be more than 2000 years old. Though it has become such an object of ad-miration to recent travellers, Gillies takes no notice of it, nor even Tournefort , whose botanical pur-suits would naturally have led him to do so.” (Residence in Constantinople , &c.) Near Nostizza, the.^Scium of the ancients, on the beach of the stream Selinus, Hobhouse found “ the enormous planetree which was notorious in the time of Chandler. One of its largest branches, as thick as the trunkof most trees, has lately fallen off; and many of the other boughs are supported by long beams ofwood.” ( Joum . of Travels in Albania , p. 229.) The same tree is described by Buckingham as being15 ft. in diameter, and 100 ft. in height, and as being covered with rich and luxuriant foliage. Theplane tree at Lee Court is mentioned by Evelyn as having been seen by him on September 16.1683.A portrait of this tree was published by Strutt, in his Sylva Britannica , p. 112. The circumferenceot the trunk, when measured by Mr. Strutt, was 14 ft. 8 in. at 6 ft. from the ground j the height was65 ft.; and it contained 301 cubic feet of timber. In Manning and Bray’s Surrey , vol. iii. p. 136.,several large Oriental planes are mentioned as growing at the seat of Sir William Temple , at MoorPark, near Farnham; but, being afterwards destroyed by the severe frost of 1808 and 1809, it is morethan probable they were Occidental planes. Dr. Walker mentions several large plane trees as exist-ing in Scotland in 1777 ; using the term sycamore, at that time generally applied to the platanus inScotland. One of the largest was in the Isle of Bute , at Mount Stewart; where, on the 1st of Sep-tember, 1786, the trunk measured 6 ft. 10 in. in circumference at 4 ft. from the ground. This tree wasplanted by the Earl of Bute in 1738. In the year 1771, there was a row of PlAtanus along the side ofone of the streets in Rothsay, which grew there like willows; but, before the year 1774, they were allremoved, to give place to new buildings. In Belgium, near Ghent , in the grounds of the villa ofM. Meulemeester, Dr. Neill found, in 1817, an avenue of Oriental planes, the finest he ever saw.The trees were, in general, about 70 ft. high, trained up to the height of about 40 ft., and the trunksquite clean and healthy.

Existing Trees. In the environs of London , at Mount Grove, Hampstead^ 80 years old, it is 77 ft.high, the diameter of the trunk 4 ft. 4 in., and of the head 90 ft.; in the Chelsea Botanic Garden, it isupwards of 70 ft. high ; at Lambeth, the one before mentioned, 90 ft. high: and one in the grounds ofthe Duke of Devonshire’s villa, at Chiswick , not very high, but with a head 100 ft. in diameter. Southof London : in Dorsetshire , at Melbury Park, 25 years planted, it is 44 ft. high, the diameter of thetrunk 3 ft. 3 in., and that of the head 30 ft.: in Hampshire , at Alresford, 41 years planted, it is 76 ft.high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 6in., and that of the head 52 ft.: in Somersetshire , at Nettlecombe,40 years planted, it is 64 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft.: in Sussex, at West Dean, 15 yearsplanted, it is 36 ft. high : in Wiltshire , at Wardour Castle, 40 years planted, it is 40 ft. high, the diame-ter of the trunk 2 ft. 6 in., and that of the head 38 ft; at Longford Castle it is 60 ft. high, the diameterof the trunk 4 ft. 6 in., and that of the head 64 ft. North of London : in Berkshire, at White Knights,19 years planted, it is 26 ft. high: in Buckinghamshire , at Temple House, 13 vears planted, it is 20 ft.high : in Pembrokeshire, at Stuckpole Court, 40 years planted, it is 60 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk2 ft. 6 in., and that of the head 30 ft.: in Shropshire , at Willey Park, 15 years planted, it is 26 ft. high :in Worcestershire , at Croome, 58 years planted, it is70fl. high, thediameter of thetrunk 2 ft., and of