The tree of the Janissaries, the ancient plane, which stands in the Court of the Janissaries in the Old Seraglio at Constantinople, was 39 feet in girth at 3 feet from the ground in 1890; but the trunk was hollow, the branches and foliage, however, being sound and vigorous.[1]
In the British Medical Journal of 21st June 1902, there is an excellent account, with illustrations, of a plane tree in the island of Cos, which from its appearance must be one of the oldest trees in the Mediterranean, if not so old as its somewhat mythical history alleges. Local tradition says that under this tree Hippocrates, the celebrated Greek physician, taught the art of healing no less than 2300 years ago. The tree grows near the landing-stage, between an ancient castle and a mosque, close to a drinking-fountain. Mr. von Holbach, who measured it, gives the girth of its hollow trunk as 18 metres; but all the upper part has decayed away, and the lower part of the tree now consists of immense branches which are supported on antique marble columns, over the tops of which their great weight has caused them to grow. Dr. Clapton, of 41 Eltham Road, Lee, procured a section of one of the branches of this tree, and has presented a photograph of it to the Hunterian Museum.
Bonvalot,[2] on his way from Samarcand to Amu, states that he halted at Sarijui, near the residence of the chief, under a plane tree, which was about 37 feet in diameter at 6 feet above the ground. In his book, a picture of the tree is given, and a great limb comes off low down, which evidently was included in the above measurement. The tree appears to be about 50 feet in girth at the base below where the limb comes off. Another enormous tree,[3] 49 feet in girth, stands in the grounds of the mosque of Tajrish, a village in the Elburz Mountains, north of Teheran, in Persia.
Var. acerifolia.
The variety acerifolia seems to have generally replaced the cut-leaved form at some period above a hundred years ago, but we cannot find any certain evidence of this, because it was generally confused with the western plane.
All the planes that we have seen in the squares, parks, and gardens about London of less age than about 100 years are acerifolia, and the finest specimen that I know of is the one in the Ranelagh Gardens, which measured, in 1903, 105 feet high, with a girth of 20 feet 4 inches.
The planes in Berkeley Square are worth notice on account of their uniform burry trunks swelling at the base. They all appear to have been propagated from the same stool and to have retained this peculiarity throughout. They were planted by Mr. Edward Bouverie in 1789 and are probably the oldest plane trees in London.[4] According to Mr. R. Birkbeck the two largest, in 1906, girthed at 5 feet, 13 feet 10 inches and 13 feet 4 inches, and were about 85 feet high. Tradition says that this area was a burial-ground during the Plague of London in 1665.
On the banks of the river Rother at Woolbeding Rectory, Sussex, in the garden
- ↑ Garden and Forest, iv. 8 5, fig. 19 (1891), where a full account and good picture of this remarkable tree are given.
- ↑ Through the Heart of Asia, i, 207, fig. on p. 209. Sarijui is a village 96 miles S.S.E. of Samarcand.
- ↑ Figured in Woods and Forests, i. 375 (1884).
- ↑ Hare, Walks in London, ii. 74 (1894).
