hat great orators and states-men, Cicero and Hortensius,
would exchange now and then a turn at the bar, that they might have the
pleasure to step to their villas, and refresh their platans, which they
would often irrigate with wine instead of water; _crevit & affuso
laetior umbra mero_: when Hortensius taught trees to tipple wine; and so
priz'd the very shadow of it, that when afterwards they transplanted
them into France, they exacted a{215:2} _solarium_ and tribute of any of
the natives, who should presume but to put his head under it. But
whether for any virtue extraordinary in the shade, or other propitious
influence issuing from them, a worthy Knight, who stay'd at Ispahan in
Persia, when that famous city was infected with a raging pestilence,
told me, that since they have planted a greater number of these noble
trees about it, the plague has not come nigh their dwellings. Pliny
affirms, there is no tree whatsoever which so well defends us from the
heat of the sun in Summer, nor that admits it more kindly in Winter. And
for our encouragement, I do upon experience assure you, that they will
flourish and abide with us, without any more trouble than frequent and
plentiful watering, which from their youth they excessively delight in,
and gratefully acknowledge by their growth accordingly; so as I am
perswaded, that with very ordinary industry, they might be propagated to
the incredible ornament of the walks and avenues to great-mens houses.
The introduction of this true plane among us, is, perhaps due to the
great Lord Chancellor Bacon, who planted those (still flourishing ones)
at Verulam; as to mine, to that honourable gentleman, the late Sir
George Crook of Oxfordshire, from whose bounty I received an hopeful
plant now growing in my villa: Nor methinks should it be so great a
rarity, (if it be true) that being brought from Sicily, it was planted
as near us as the Morini.

3. There was lately at Basil in Switzerland, an ancient goodly
_Platanetum_, and now in France they are come again in vogue: I know it
was anciently accounted +akarpos+; but they may with us be rais'd of
their seeds with care, in a moist soil, as here I have known them. But
the reason of our little success, is, that we very rarely have them sent
us ripe; which should be gather'd late in Autumn, and brought us from
some more Levantine parts than Italy. They come also of layers
abundantly, affecting a fresh and feeding ground; for so they plant them