THE MAPLE FAMILY. 159 



wick. Leaves opposite, simple, fan-veined, fan-lobed, and upon long 

 petioles ; flowers small, green, or greenish-yellow, collected plentifully 

 in axillary racemes or corymbs, with (in the common kinds) usually 

 eight stamens, placed upon a thick and flattened ring beneath the 

 ovary, which is two-lobed, and curved like a earwig's opened pincers. 

 The fruit consists of two small, roundish, one-seeded carpels, lengthened 

 at one extremity into a thin, dry wing, and while young, often of a 

 pretty rose-colour. (Fig. 114.) Sometimes there are three carpels, 

 when the fruit resembles the arms of the Isle of Man. 



,.X! 



r 



Fig. 115. 

 Sugar Maple. 



Two species occur in England, one truly wild, the other properly a 

 native of the mountains of Central Europe and Western Asia, but now 

 nearly naturalized, and both found near Manchester. 



1. Flowers in long pendulous racemes; lobes of the leaves larffe, ) o 



.,,?,, " ' ^ Sycamore. 

 pointed, and serrated j 



2. Flowers in erect corymbs ; lobes of the leaves obtuse, entire, 1 ^ , , 



,.^., J. U Common Maple. 

 or a bttle crenate J 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 1 . Sycamore — (Acer pseiido-pldtanus.) 



Everywhere in plantations and hedges ; the most abundant and 

 flourishing tree of the district, but scarcely spontaneous in any case. 

 Fl. May, June. 



E. B. V. 303. 



