Acer taiaricum, 
THE TARTARIAN MAPLE. 
Synonymes. 
Acer taiaricum, 
Erable de Tartarie, 
Tartarischer Ahorn, 
Zarza-modon, (Locust,) 
Tartarian Maple, 
Linnjeus, Species Plantarum. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
France. 
Germany. 
Russia. 
Britain and Anglo- America. 
Engravings. Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, i., figure 114, o. 434, et v. pi. 25; and the figures below. 
Specific Characters. Leaves cordate, undivided, serrated, with obsolete lobes. Racemes compound, 
crowded, erect ; wings of fruit parallel, young ones puberulous. Don, Miller's Diet. 
Description. 
HE Tartarian Maple, in 
favourable situations, at- 
tains a height of forty 
or fifty feet; but near 
the river Wolga, and its tributaries, it forms a 
hemispherical tree, about twenty feet in height, 
with a summit as broad and as high as the tree . 
itself. The branches are numerous, and disposed / 
into a compact head, densely covered with leaves, 
which are distinguished by a peculiarly veiny 
appearance, and lively green. The flowers, 
which appear in May and June, are of a pale, 
greenish yellow, sometimes slightly tinged with 
red, as are the fruit or keys, before their matu- 
rity. 
Geography and History. The Acer tatari- 
cum is found in Tartary, and is common through- 
out all the south of European Russia ; but it does 
not occur on the Ural Mountains, nor on the Caucasus. It was introduced into 
Britain in 1759, and is cultivated in the chief gardens in Europe solely as an 
ornamental tree. 
The largest tree in Britain is at Endsleigh Cottage, in Devonshire, which, at 
eighteen years planted, was forty feet high. 
Properties, Uses, fyc. The wood of this species is hard; and being of a 
whitish colour, veined with brown, it may be used for cabinet-work. In orna- 
mental plantations, the tree is valuable on account of the early expansion of its 
leaves, which appear before those of almost every other kind of maple ; and it is 
said to thrive in a moister soil. When raised from seeds, the plant will come 
into flower in five or six years ; and in good soil, it will attain the height of 
fifteen feet in ten years. Pallas informs us, that the Calmucks, after depriving 
the keys of their wings, boil them in water, and afterwards use them for food, 
mixed up with milk and butter. 
10 
