PLANE, Rafamt8, the sole genus of trees of the natural order platanaecw, regarded by many as a suborder of anaentacecc (q.v.). The flowers are in globose. small, pendu lous, long stalked catkins, which give the tree a peculiar appearance. in winter; the ovary is one-celled, and contains one or two pendulous ovules. The species of plane are very few; natives of temperate climates in the northern hemisphere; tall trees, with deciduous large palmate leaves, and smooth whitish bark, which annually scales off in The ORIENTAL PLANE (P. orientah:s), a native of Greece and the east, was planted by ,the Greeks and the Romans as an ornamental tree; no other tree, indeed, commandingequal i admiration; and, for centuries, the youth of Greece assembled under its shade in the groves of Academ us, to receive lessons in philosophy. The plane is still planted for shade and ornament in the south of Europe. Many fine trees exist in England, but they were at one time mach more numerous, great part having died in the end of last century. The spring frosts, and the insufficient duration of the summer for the proper ripening of the wood. render Scotland less suitable for its cultivation; yet there is a tree at Gordon cas tle 66 ft. high. No tree better endures the atmosphere of a large city, and there are no
finer trees within the precincts of London than its plane trees. In the east the plane attains an immense size. One tree, in the meadow of Buyukdere on the banks of the Bosporus. is 141 ft. in circumference at the base, extends its branches 45 ft. from the trunk, and is believed to be more than 2.000 years old. The wood of the plane, when young, is yellowish-white; when old, it is brownish, fine grained, takes a high polish, and is esteemed for cabinet-making. A rich 'alluvial soil and the vicinity of water are most suitable to this t•ee.—The NORTH AMERICAN PLANE, or BUTTONWOOD (P. occiden tale's), is a very similar tree. It is the largest deciduous tree of the United States, and abounds on the banks of the great rivers of the middle states. Its timber is not very valuable, and is very liable to decay. A tree of this species on the bank of the Thames, in Chelsea hospital gardens, is 115 ft. high, with a trunk five ft. in diameter. The name planetree is commonly given in Scotland to the sycamore (acer pseudo-platanus), which resembles the true planes in its foliage.