5.

WESTERN PLANE, ORIENTAL PLANE.

PLATE 5. FIGURES 1 TO 4.

UICK as its growth is, the foliage of the Western Plane is none the less beautiful; and one of its most useful characteristics is its

capacity for giving pleasure to towns

people by growing

in the heart of

densely populated cities. It seems indeed almost to thrive with greater luxuriance in the smoke and dust generated by crowded manufacturing

districts; and numberless examples could be furnished of the marvellous growth and vigour of this tree under circumstances which would be depressing to many species of vegetation.

Very beautiful in spring and summer is the handsome leaf of the Western Plane-for the golden green of spring scarcely loses its verdant lightness with the arrival of the riper season: and it is delightful then to look up into the luxuriant mass of foliage that shuts out the scorching sun-rays. But fair to the eye as are the external form and colour of the leaf of the Western Plane the framework upon which the beautiful tissue is so attractively spread is equally pleasing. If a rough comparison were instituted it would be found that the Plane leaf is not unlike that of the Sycamore; or rather it should strictly be said that the Sycamore somewhat resembles the Plane, having in fact, received the name of Acer pseudo-platanus, or the 'False Plane.' Whilst, however, the one leaf is dark green, as we have seen, the other is almost golden. Like the Sycamore the Plane is more or less distinctly fivelobed, though the lobes are pyramidal instead of

rounded, and sometimes the two lowermost lobes are not very prominent. Unlike the Sycamore the leaf edge of the Plane is almost unindented, but, like it, a principal vein runs from the top of the leaf stalk to the apex of each lobe and gives out branches which fork alternately from it on either side. From veins and branch veins diverge veinlets which traverse the entire leafy surface and form a minute system of reticulation.

The early autumn colouring of the Western Plane is very striking and beautiful-hues of yellow, orange, russet, and sometimes red invading the yet green summer leaf. The advance of the change often produces fine contrasts. Sometimes, unlike the progress of early colouring in most leaves, the principal veins, and the tissue immediately adjacent to them, become tinged with yellow or orange or light golden brown, whilst the rest of the tissue remains green. In the instance of leaves we have already described, we have seen that the contrary is the case, the veins and adjoining tissue being the last instead of the first to receive the impressions of Autumn. The peculiarity that has just been noticed gives an

appearance as of yellow stripes upon the leaf. At other times the whole of one lobe-it may be the upper one of the leaf-will become suffused with a fine orange colour upon which a glow of light red may be cast, whilst the rest of the lobes are either green or green and yellow-veined. Sometimes two or more lobes are thus affected, or one may be orange and reddish orange and another, or others, green, or russet. Again the middle of a lobe or the middle of the leaf only may be dyed with orange or yellow over an irregular space, whilst all the tissue outside and around it may be still of the normal green. Variations from all these species of colouring is provided by the entire surface being mottled and splashed and spotted and stained with golden brown, orange, light red, russet and green, whilst upon the same tree which bears all the varieties that have been enumerated we may find leaves untouched by the faintest hue of autumn colouring.

In speaking of the two species of Plane which grow in this country, Gilpin calls them 'noble trees.' Of the Western Plane, which came to us from America-a tree which, though only natu

ralized in this country, has become singularly attached to the soil of its adoption-the author of Forest Scenery says that no tree forms a more pleasing shade.' He adds;—' It is full-leafed, and its leaf is large, smooth, of a fine texture, and seldom injured by insects. Its lower branches, shooting horizontally, soon take a direction to the ground; and the spray seems more sedulous than that of any tree we have, by twisting about in various forms, to fill up every little vacuity with shade.'

The Oriental Plane so much resembles its congener just mentioned that it is scarcely necessary to do more than note the points wherein its leaves differ from those of its western relative. The points of difference lie in the more acute and attenuated form of the five lobes into which the leaf of the Oriental Plane is cut. It is also more distinctly five-lobed and the indentations between the lobes are deeper, giving a very pronounced palmate or hand-shaped form to it. The summer leaf, too, of the Oriental Plane is somewhat less golden in its hue than that of its congener. But