The well-known tree in Kew Gardens, near the Palace, is about 80 feet high, and measures 14 feet 8 inches in girth.
In Scotland, the oriental plane is rare; and seems to be much injured by late spring frosts. The Rev. D. Landsborough[1] speaks of one planted in 1864 in Kay Park, Kilmarnock, which was killed by the frost of 15th April 1903; others, however, in a sheltered position had not suffered. A large oriental plane at Kelso, which was a favourite tree of Sir Walter Scott's, was destroyed by the great frost of 1814. This was probably the tree referred to by Walker[2] in 1812, who states that the oriental plane grows at Mount Stewart, Bute, like a willow, and nowhere else so good in Scotland except at Kelso.
In Ireland the oriental plane is rather a rare tree. The finest specimen we know of is at Carton, the seat of the Duke of Leinster, which was, in 1904, 82 feet in height by 11 feet 9 inches in girth, Mr. W. E. Gumbleton has sent us specimens from a very fine tree growing in his grounds at Belgrove, near Queenstown in County Cork. Another good tree is reported to be growing at Curragh Chase, in Co. Limerick. There are smaller trees at Clonmannin, in Co. Wicklow.
The oriental plane attains an enormous size and great longevity in the eastern parts of Europe, Asia Minor, and Persia.
One of the most remarkable was a tree growing in the village of Vostiza, on the Gulf of Lepanto, in Greece, which measured,[3] in 1842, 37 feet 4 inches in girth at 5 feet from the ground, and was estimated to be 130 to 140 feet in height. This tree is supposed to be the one referred to by Pausanias, who wrote in the second century A.D.; yet in 1842 the trunk appeared to be perfectly sound, though many of the larger branches have succumbed to age and storm. Sir F. Elliot, British Minister at Athens, was good enough to make enquiry about this tree from Mr. Wood, British Consul at Patras, who informed him that when he last saw the tree, only a few feet of hollow stump remained. There are two remarkable oriental planes at Cannosa, near Ragusa in Dalmatia, which measure at breast height 32 feet 1 inch and 30 feet in girth. They are about 120 feet high.[4]
The famous plane at Bujukdere on the Bosporus is not a single trunk, but is formed of nine stems fused together. According to Ch. Martins,[5] in September 1856, the height was 200 feet—evidently an exaggeration—with a spread of branches 373 feet in circumference. One trunk girthed 18 feet; two trunks united together for some distance girthed 36 feet, the remaining six trunks being in an ellipse of 76 feet. One of the stems was hollow and afforded stable room for two horses. This tree is typical orientalis.[6] This tree is also sometimes called the "Seven Brothers" or the plane tree of Godfrey de Bouillon, as tradition states that he and his crusaders encamped in its vicinity in 1096.[7] Sir N. O'Conor informed me in 1903 that it has suffered much within the last few years owing to some excavations made close to its roots, and is evidently declining rapidly. A sketch of it made for the late Mr. C. Ellis, is now in Lady Emlyn's possession.
- ↑ Kilmarnock Glenfield Ramblers Soc. Annals, 1901–1904, p. 33.
- ↑ Hebrides, ii. 199 (1812).
- ↑ D.H. in Woods and Forests, i. 174 (1884).
- ↑ Beck v. Mannagetta, Veget. Verhält. IIlyrisch. Länd. 185 (1901).
- ↑ Du Spitzberg au Sahara, 474 (1866).
- ↑ Bentham and Viscount Downe, in Gard. Chron. 1856, p. 118.
- ↑ Mouillefert, Essences Forestières, 215 (1903); and Garden and Forest, ii. 349 (1880).
