Plane

Plane (Platanus) - Stately summer-leafing trees of the East and America, of rapid and vigorous growth and high value in the warmer parts of our islands as shade, lawn, or avenue trees; thriving, too, in the centre even of smoke-polluted cities, as in many of the squares in west and central London, and not merely existing, as most trees do in such condition, but attaining much beauty of form and dignity there, as in Berkeley Square and Lincolns Inn Fields.

Here the great trees, getting out of the gardeners way, or any attack of pruners or self-appointed tree-architects, assume their true and natural form, and are fine at all seasons. Where the Plane is used in the streets of London, and on the Thames Embankment, the costly and wasteful labor of pruning the trees to one ugly shape is carried out. The Planes are easily increased by cuttings and layers, but planters should in all cases avoid them, as they cannot expect from such beginnings the fine, rapid, natural growth and true form of the tree. The Plane which thrives best in London, or what is often called the London Plane, is not (as it used to be thought) the American or Western Plane, but the Eastern Plane or one of its forms, of which the accepted name is now acerifolia, a name with many synonyms. The true Western Plane, P. occidentalis, is rarely seen in Europe outside of botanical gardens, and, when it is, it has little of the beautiful vigour of the Oriental Plane in England. The name Orientalis is still kept up for a deeply-cut leaved form of Plane, but it is not really distinct as a species from the London Plane. P. cuneata is an Eastern species with deeply-cut leaves, but it may be taken for all planting ends that the vigorous London Plane is the Eastern Plane, no matter by what name it is called. The Plane, being a tree of vast distribution in the East, accounts for the origin and distribution of the various forms, mainly differing in the shape and lobing of the leaves. While the tree attains its greatest growth in S. Italy and S.E. Europe generally, it is a noble tree in the southern parts of England, attaining its best size, height, and form in good valley soils, and there are many fine examples of it in the Thames Valley. There is a peculiarity of the bark in scaling off in large irregular patches, which leads to rather a striking effect, and is in no way harmful to the tree. The Greeks and Romans used it much as a shade tree near their public buildings, and from all recorded time it has been much planted in Persia.

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