Acer 655 



At Casewick, Lincolnshire, the seat of Lord Kesteven, a maple measured, in 1907, 

 53 feet high by 9 feet i inch in girth, with a bole of 9 feet. At Arley Castle, near 

 Bewdley, a slender tree measured, in 1906, 66 feet high by 4 feet 8 inches in girth. 

 At Colesborne, just below the church, there is one about 60 feet high by 9 feet in 

 girth ; and this is the largest that I know in Gloucestershire. 



None of the trees recorded by Loudon approach those mentioned above in 

 size, and though the tree is so hardy in the south of England, it usually does not 

 attain a considerable size in the north. I have myself seen no specimens in Scot- 

 land worth recording ; and it is not mentioned either in the Old and Remarkable 

 Trees of Scotland or in Hunter's Woods and Forests of Perthshire. Loudon 

 records a tree at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, 46 feet high, and another 

 at Blairlogie in Stirlingshire, said to have been 302 years old and no less than 

 55 feet high by 4 feet in diameter. The Hon. Vicary Gibbs, however, measured in 

 1905 a pollarded tree at Armadale Castle, in the Isle of Skye, 42 feet high by ']\ feet 

 in girth at 2\ feet from the ground. Mr. Renwick also reports a large one at 

 Ardgowan, Renfrewshire, which was, in 1904, 12 feet 2 inches in girth at i foot up, 

 and another at Auchentorlie, Dumbartonshire, which was, in 1907, 41 feet high by 

 9 feet 5 inches in girth at 3 feet from the ground. Henry measured in 1905 a 

 tree in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, 54 feet high by 6 feet 2 inches in girth, 

 dividing into two stems at 8 feet from the ground. 



The common maple is often planted in Ireland; but Henry has seen no trees 

 of great size. It thrives well at Castlewellan, where there is a young tree about 

 30 feet in height. 



Timber 



Though the wood is one of the best of its class, on account of its fine grain, close 

 texture and hardness, and though it sometimes shows a most beautiful figure, which 

 when polished is highly ornamental, this wood, formerly much sought after for 

 turning, inlaying, and cabinetmaking, is now hardly known in commerce, and is not 

 mentioned by most recent writers. Stevenson,^ however, says that waved or 

 mottled specimens when cut into veneer are little, if anything, inferior to American 

 bird's-eye maple. 



The so-called mazer bowls which in ancient times were carried by every 

 pilgrim to drink from, just as they now are by the Tibetans,^ were turned from the 

 roots and burrs of the common maple, and when mounted in silver the few remaining 

 specimens of these bowls are very highly valued by collectors. The colour of the 

 wood is normally white, but in old trees it turns to a pinkish or brown colour, and 

 so far as my experience goes it is a wood which shrinks and warps very little. For 

 parquet flooring it would be admirable, and might be very well used for table legs. 

 In English Timber and its Econotnical Conversion it is said to be subject to the 

 attacks of worms, but I do not know whether this statement is based on 

 experience. (H. J. E.) 



' Trui of Commeru, p. 112. > Cf. p. 662, note 3. 



