One of the Bulletins of the Soc

One of the Bulletins of the Soc. de Gographie (sr. III. tom. iii. p.
187) contains a perfectly inconclusive endeavour, by M. Roux de Rochelle,
to identify the _Arbre Sec_ or _Arbre Sol_ with a manna-bearing oak
alluded to by Q. Curtius as growing in Hyrcania. There can be no doubt
that the tree described is, as Marsden points out, a _Chnr_ or Oriental
Plane. Mr. Ernst Meyer, in his learned _Geschichte der Botanik_
(Knigsberg, 1854-57, IV. 123), objects that Polo”s description of the
_wood_ does not answer to that tree. But, with due allowance, compare with
his whole account that which Olearius gives of the Chinar, and say if the
same tree be not meant. ‘The trees are as tall as the pine, and have very
large leaves, closely resembling those of the vine. The fruit looks like a
chestnut, but has no kernel, so it is not eatable. The wood is of a very
brown colour, and full of veins; the Persians employ it for doors and
window-shutters, and when these are rubbed with oil they are incomparably
handsomer than our walnut-wood joinery.’ (I. 526.) The Chinar-wood is used
in Kashmir for gunstocks.