662 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



occasionally short and broad. Fruit-wings erect and parallel or diverging only 

 at an acute angle. Introduced by Maries in 1881. 



6. Var. Mono {A. Mono, Maximowicz). Japan, Saghalien, Amurland, Manchuria, 



Northern and Central China. 



Differs from the last in the wings of the fruit diverging at about a right 

 angle. Introduced' from Central China by Wilson in 1901. Plants at 

 Coombe Wood are about 6 feet high. 



*** Young branchlets glaucous. 



7. Var. Mayrii^A. Mayri, von Schwerin). Yezo. This differs from var. eu-pictum 



in the young branchlets being glaucous. Mayr, who discovered the tree in 

 1886, says that the bark is almost white in colour and hard and smooth. 

 Apparently not yet introduced. 

 Acer pictum is widely distributed, occurring from Asia Minor through the 

 Caucasus and the Himalayas to China, Manchuria, and Japan. In Asia Minor 

 it is met with in the mountains near Trebizond, where, as in the Caucasus, it 

 grows in mixed forests and beech woods, ascending from sea-level to 5600 feet. 

 It has been collected in Armenia and in the Elburz Mountains of Northern Persia. 

 According to Gamble,'* it is the commonest maple in the Western Himalaya, but 

 extends throughout the middle and outer ranges from the Indus to Assam, where 

 it grows as a moderate-sized tree with thin grey bark at elevations ranging 

 from 4000 to 9000 feet. The wood is used in India for construction, ploughs, 

 bedsteads, and carrying-poles ; and the Tibetan drinking cups are turned from 

 the knotty excrescences which are often found on this tree.* Further east the 

 tree is spread throughout the mountains of Western China in the provinces of 

 Yunnan, Szechwan, and Hupeh ; and it is found northward in the province of 

 Chihli and throughout Manchuria. It also grows in the island of Saghalien, and 

 is the most common and largest species of maple in Japan, where, according to 

 Sargent,"* it is one of the most abundant trees in Hokkaido, occasionally attaining 

 a height of 50 feet and a girth of 5 feet. Elwes, however, saw none as large 

 as this. The tree is beautiful in May, when the flowers are just opening, as the 

 large lengthened inner scales of the winter buds are then bright orange-yellow, 

 and very showy. The autumnal colour of the leaves is described as yellow and 

 red. 



This species is usually seen in England as a small tree in botanic gardens 

 and public parks, var. colchicum rubrum appearing to be the commonest variety 

 in cultivation, the form from Japan being very rare. The finest trees we have 

 seen are two at Tortworth, one of which is 49 feet high, and 5^ feet in girth, with 

 a very spreading top 45 to 50 paces round, and many suckers from the roots with 

 reddish leaves. Another in the park, is grafted on A. platanoides, and has very 



Joum. Roy. Hart. Soc. xxix. 348, fF. 87, 89 (1904.) ' Indian Timbers, 202 (1902). 



' Hooker in Himalayan Journals, i. 132, 133, says that some of these cups are supposed to be antidotes against poison, 

 and fetch a very high price. The Icnotty excrescences are produced on the roots of oaks, maples, and other mountain forest 

 trees in the Himalaya by a parasitical plant known as Balanophora. 



* Forest Flora of Japan, 29(1 894). 



