CLASS VIII. ORDER I.] ACER. 541 



long slender footstalks, smooth, channeled above, unequal, five lobed, 

 the two lower ones smallest, the middle one the largest, mostly acutely 

 pointed, and unequally doubly crenated or serrated, a smooth palish 

 lively green above, beneath an opaque glaucous, having five ribs, nu- 

 merous branched, and very minutely sub-divided into a net work of 

 veins, quite smooth, except at the axis of the ribs is a dense tuft of 

 ■white woolly hairs. Inflorescence an elongated pendulous raceme 

 from the axis of the leaves, compound towards the base, simple above, 

 scattered over with hairs, the peduncles thickened upwards. Flowers 

 a yellowish green, numerous, polygamous. Calyx deeply divided into 

 five linear segments, obtuse, sometimes spatulate, hairy, persistent. 

 Petals similar to the calyx. Stamens on slender filaments^ inserted 

 into a hypogynous disk, those of the male flowers longer than the 

 calyx. Anthers rather large, oblong, of two cells, bursting lateially. 

 Style as long as the stamens, with a recurved two or three lobed 

 stigma. Ovarium densely clothed with white shining hairs, two 

 lobed. Fruit of two or three one or two seeded roundish carpels, 

 united at the base, terminating in broad membranous veined wings, 

 about an inch long. 



Habitat. — Groves, hedges, plantations, &c. ; naturalised. 



Tree ; flowering in May. 



This is a large handsome tree, much cultivated from the beauty of 

 its appearance in pleasure grounds and plantations, or formed into 

 groves. It grows wild in the hilly or mountainous districts of Switzer- 

 land, Germany, Italy, &c.in the South of Europe ; but it is remarkably 

 hardy, and is become perfectly naturalized with us, and is one of our 

 best trees for maritime situations, as it is not injured by the spray of 

 the sea, and so firmly rooted as to resist the high winds, and form 

 a protection to other trees. It is one of our first trees to put out its 

 leaves in the Spring, and retains them until late in the Autumn; but 

 it soon becomes covered with a sweetish exudation, and attracts on 

 that account numerous kinds of insects, which frequently in a short 

 time greatly disfigure it. We have some seasons observed this 

 exudation so great as to be inconvenient to persons sitting under the 

 trees, keeping a pavement over which they spread their branches in a 

 constant state of moisture. The sap not only of this, but all the 

 species of the genus contains in considerable quantities saccharine 

 matter; and from A. saccharinum^ a North American species, the sap 

 is collected by wounding the trees, and when evaporated leaves an 

 excellent kind of sugar, which is afterwards refined and granulated in 

 the same way as that obtained from the sugar cane. The wood of the 

 Si/camore, or as it is frequently called mock Plane, from its resemblance 

 to the Plane tree (Platanus occidentalis), a North American species, 

 and which it almost equals in beauty, is soft, and is mostly used by 

 turners, and for light or ornamental articles, saddle trees, millwright 

 work, &c. 



VOL. I. 4 b 



