362 



OCTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Acer. 



pu'mila. O, Leaves spear-shaped, blunt, smooth, on small leave- 

 stalks. Stems rather prostrate. Capsules acute- 



angled. 





Stem 5 or 6 inches high, herbaceous, columnar, gently wind. 

 ing, straddling. Leaves elliptically spear shaped, very entire. 

 Flowers from the base of the leaves, solitary, upright, nearly 

 sitting. Petals yellow, inversely heart-shaped, streaked. Cap* 

 sule s inversely egg-shaped, blunt, with 8 angles, the 4 wider 

 angles compressed ; 4 valves. Root perennial. Linn. This elegant 

 plant, new to the English botanist, has been found growing wild 

 on Coleshill Common, Warwicksh. by Lord Aylesford's gar- 

 dener. 



A'CER. Male flowers intermixed. 



Calyx 5-cleft: Moss. 5 petals: caps. 1 or 3; 1- 



seeded; ending in a leaf-like expansion. 



Pseudo- A. Leaves 5 -lobed, blunt, unequally serrated : flowers in 



pla'tanus. 



compound, pendent bunches. 



E. hot. oOS-Hunt. evel.jp. 200. \. p. 193. ed. II. at p. 293- 

 Nat.delin. ii. 21. 1. at p. 312-Lob. obs.6l&. and icAu 

 199.2-ParL 1425. \-Clus. i. 10. 1~ZW, 840. l-Ger. 

 em. 1484. 1-Trag. 1125. 



Blots, yellowish green ; petals so much like the calyx that 

 it might be considered at first sight as a cup of 10 leaves. 





Sycamore Tree. 

 houses. 



Sycamore Maple. Woods, hedges, and near 



T. May, June ~ 



Var. 2. Leaves glaucous underneath ; serratures very distant ; 

 filaments hairy. 



First observed by A. Caldwell, Esq, of Dublin. Dr. Smith 

 suspects it may be a distinct species. See E. bot. p. 303 j but 

 the filaments in Var. 1, are hairy, as well as the germen. 



* It flourishes best in open places and sandy ground: but will thrive 

 very well in richer soil. It grows quick ; is easily transplanted;, bears 



cropping, and the grass flourishes under its shade. It is said to ff 0%v 

 better near the sea than in any other situation, and that a plantation, °f 

 these trees at ^ofeet asunde*, with 3 sea Salloiv- thorns between every 2 °* 



them, will make a fence sufficient to defend the herbage of the country 

 from the spray of the sea. Girt. Mag. 1757, p. 252. — The wood is soft, 

 and very white. The turners form it into bowls, trenchers, &c— If a hole 

 is bored into the body of the tree, when the sap rises in the spring, it Un- 

 charges a considerable quantity of a sweetish watery liquor, which is used 

 in making wine, and, if inspissated, affords a fine white sugar. — The pol- 

 len appears globular in the microscope, but, if touched with any thing 

 moist, these globules burst open with 4 valves which then appear in f° rin 



of a cross. Scarabxus Meloniba feeds upon the leaves. Linn. 





