CHAP. I.] ACERINE^. 319 



lobes ((?), and in all the leaves, two of the lobes 

 are not so deeply cut as the others. 



There are many species of Acer, most of 

 which are tall trees ; and they are chiefly dis- 

 tinguished from each other by the shape of the 

 leaves and of the samaras, or keys, the wings of 

 which, in some species, are near together, as 

 shown at d in Jig. 123, and in others widely 

 apart, as in the common hedge Maple {A. cam- 

 pestris), and in the Norway Maples, as shown at 

 a mjig. 125. This figure represents the flowers 

 of the Norway Maple (Acer pIata?ioides), which 

 are in what botanists call a corymb, and stand 

 erect, instead of drooping like those of the 

 sycamore. The leaves are deeply five-lobed, 

 and the lobes are so coarsely toothed, that the 

 teeth have almost the appearance of lobules. 

 The buds of this plant in winter are large and 

 red, and when they open in spring, the bracts 

 {b) curl back over the scales (c). The leaves 

 become of a clear yellowish red in autumn, and 

 the whole plant is very ornamental. When a 

 leaf of this tree is broken off*, a milky sap issues 

 from the broken petiole or leaf-stalk, which is 

 of an acrid nature ; differing in this respect, 

 materially from the sap of the trunk, which is 

 very sweet. Sugar indeed may be made from the 

 sap of the trunk of almost all the Maples ; but 

 particularly in America, from that of the Sugar 



