Plane Tree
any species of the genus Platanus of which five or six exist.
They are tall trees with ponderous trunks, the bark of which peels off annually, leaving the surface smooth and bare. The Oriental plane tree, P. orientalis, an umbrageous tree, 70 to 90 feet high, has palmate leaves like those of the sycamore. It is a native of western Asia and Cashmere. Its smoothgrained wood is used in the East for cabinet making. In India its bruised leaves are applied to the eyes in ophthalmia, and its bark, boiled in vinegar, given in diarrhea. The Occidental or American plane tree, P. occidentalis, has less deeply divided and indented leaves, and no membranous bracts along the female flowers. On the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi there are trees 10 to 16 feet in diameter. Called, also, in the United States, buttonwood and water beech, and sycamore, and in Canada, cotton tree. A third species, often confounded with this one, is the maple-leaved plane, P. acerifolia, the species sometimes with giant trunk, cultivated in some London squares. The Scotch or mock plane tree is Acer pseudo-platanus. saraads PLANT BREEDING ter, and Mars 4,200, but Jupiter is 85,- 000. The intra-asteroidal planets complete the annual revolution in short periods, the Earth, for example, in 365.26 days, while Neptune takes to do so 60,127 days, or about 165 years. The minor planets, planetoids, or asteroids are between Mars and Jupiter.