Annotation:Plane Tree (The)
PLANE TREE, THE. AKA and see "Scottish a Bethanie/Schottische a Bethanie." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). D Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. A modern piece generally credited to whistle and pipe player Undine Hornby of the Late Night Band, although it was her 6/8 time adaptation of the schottische "Mominette," composed by French musician Jean-François "Maxou" Heintzen in 1981. Social media sources suggest the tune was imported to England by one-time Blowzabella member Paul James, included in the first Blowzabella tune book as "a new French Schottische." "Scottish à Bethanie" was melodeon player Gary Chapin's re-titling of the 4/4 version, named for his wife. "The Plane Tree" is often paired in sessions with Martin Ellison's "Herbert the Sherbert."
The London Plane is a the name of a tree of hybrid origin, widely cultivated from the Avenue des Champs-Elyses to Bruin Walk. It is the offspring of two different species, the American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and the Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis), and it is a tree that did not exist prior to European colonization of the new world. Although it is not known when this hybridization took place, it was sometime in the 17th century and was established in England by the latter part of that century.
