Acer 651 



" bowls," which are used in cotton-dying and washing machines. For this purpose 

 it must be cut early in the winter, in order to preserve the purity of its colour, 

 and removed as soon as possible, for if left standing till the sap begins to rise, 

 which it does early in spring, or left lying exposed to the weather, it is soon 

 depreciated in value. Butts of moderate age, free from branches or knots and 

 over 18 or 20 inches quarter-girth, are worth from 3s. 6d. to 5s. per foot, or even 

 more wiien near their best market, which is in Lancashire. The measuring of this 

 timber presents a difficulty when, as often happens, the logs are not round or quite 

 straight, as in conversion they have to be turned down to a true cylinder, and in 

 trees grown in the open, as is usually the case, large buttresses and swellings 

 often occur, for which allowance must be made.^ 



Smaller and rougher trees are worth much less than large clean ones, and are 

 converted into planks and smaller rollers, which are used by manufacturers of 

 dairy utensils and mangles, brush-makers, toy-makers, and turners, for bobbins 

 and many small articles. From is. to 2s. per foot is a fair price for such timber, 

 but the price varies much, according to the locality. A certain quantity of 

 sycamore is cut into veneers, and when the wood has a wavy grain, like that of 

 the so-called fiddle-backed maple, it is very ornamental, and may be used with 

 good effect for the interiors of cabins, railway carriages, and furniture. What is 

 known in the furniture trade as " hare wood " is, I believe, nothing more than fine 

 wavy sycamore, which by age or staining has taken a pinkish-brown colour. 



(H. J. E.) 



ACER CAMPESTRE, Common Maple 



Acer campestre, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 1055 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 428 (1838); 

 Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 764 (1887); Mathieu, Flore Forestilre, 42 (1897). 



A tree, rarely attaining 70 feet in height, usually smaller. Bark, corky on young 

 trees, ultimately becoming fissured and scaly. Young branchlets usually pubescent, 

 in some forms glabrous, and not remaining green throughout the first year. Leaves 

 variable in size, averaging 2^ inches long and 3 inches broad, cordate at the 

 base, five-lobed, the two basal lobes occasionally obsolete ; lobes shortly acuminate ; 

 margin plainly ciliate, usually with a few coarse obtuse teeth ; upper surface dark- 

 green, pubescent on the nerves ; lower surface light-green, with scattered pubes- 

 cence, dense on the nerves and tufted on the axils. Petiole with milky sap. 

 Plate 207, Figs. 24 and 25, taken from adult trees growing in England, show con- 

 siderable variation in the shape of the leaves and the amount of pubescence on the 

 branchlets. Fig. 23 represents the foliage of a coppice shoot in a French forest. 



Flowers, in corymbs, at first erect, afterwards pendent, opening with or soon 

 after the leaves, green in colour, with pubescent pedicels and sepals ; lateral flowers 



' William Low, Esq., of Monifieth, Scotland, informs me that in his neighbourhood there is a large consumption of 

 sycamore for making rollers used in the jute and flax-spinning industry. These are from 7 to 9 inches in diameter, and 1} 

 inch thick. They cost about 305. per gross, and are preferred when made of hard and slowly grown Scotch timber, which is 

 considered to be less liable to crack in drying, when cut in transverse sections. 



Ill 2 D 



