Sir, University officials at Cambridge intend to replace more than 100 diseased horse chestnut trees with hazel and hawthorns instead (“The Backs at risk from imported tree diseases”, May 30). These species can never attain the stature or grace required by the “magical landscape” of the Backs. If they were chosen as part of an obsessive devotion by tree officers in recent years to native species, then why not plant ash (Fraxinus excelsior), which could attain significant size and beauty?
If this obsession can be disregarded, no better tree exists than the glorious London plane (Platanus x acerifolia). Moreover, it is a descendant of the oriental plane (Platanus orientalis), so valued by Cicero and Hortensius that they “would often irrigate with wine instead of water; Crevit & affuso letior umbra mero” (John Evelyn, Sylva, 1644).
Roger Morsley-Smith
London W4