RED-FLOWERED MAPLE. 101 
nd is sometimes employed as ink, by American youth in village schools. For 
lis purpose, however, it is very inappropriate, as it never dries properly, and 
i damp weather, the writing becomes glutinous and blots. A fluid prepared in 
similar manner, by adding sulphate of alumina, (common alum,) instead of 
Dpperas, is also used for dyeing black. The French Canadians make sugar 
om the sap of this maple, which they call plaine ; but, as in the preceding 
jecies, the product cf a given measure, is not more than one half as great as 
lat of the sugar maple. 
In Britain, and throughout Europe, the sole use of the Acer rubrum is as an 
:namental tree ; and, whether it is viewed in the beauty of its flowers and 
Dening leaves in early spring, or admired for its red fruit in the beginning of 
immer, and its crimsoned foliage in autumn, it deserves to be ranked as one of 
te most ornamental of hardy trees. 
Acer monspessulanum, 
THE MONTPELLIER MAPLE. 
Synonymes. 
ILinnjetjs, Species Plantaram. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
Erable de Montpellier, France. 
Franzosischer Ahorn, Germans-. 
Acero minore, Acero piccolo, Albero ) t tal _ 
lattajolo, \ 
Montpellier Maple, Britain and Anglo-America. 
Engravings. Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, i., figure 131, p. 458; et v., pi. 41 ; and the figure below. 
jecific Characters. Leaves cordate, 3-lobed ; lobes almost entire, and equal. Corymbs few-flowered, 
pendulous. Fruit smooth, with the wings hardly diverging. Loudon, Arboretum. 
Description. 
g^lHE Acer monspessulanum is a low tree or shrub, 
g| thirty or forty feet in height; native of France, 
Spain, and Italy ; grows chiefly on rocky, exposed 
_X/SlP situations; and introduced into Britain in 1739. 
lie trunk is covered with a reddish-brown bark. The leaves are chiefly three- 
)bed, with an entire margin, of a dark-green colour, and bear a general resem- 
lance to those of the Acer campestre, which are about the same size, but of a 
aler green, and five-lobed ; in mild seasons, they remain on the trees a great 
art of the winter, more especially in France. The flowers are produced just 
efore the leaves, in May ; they are pendulous, and grow in corymbs, one from 
lmost every bud, and consist of from six to ten flowers ; they are of a pale-yel- 
dw colour, and form a great source of attraction to bees. The wood is hard 
nd heavy, and is used in France by turners and cabinet-makers. It is 
auch planted in that country for hedges, on account of the persistency of the 
eaves. In England, this tree may be considered as purely one of ornament, 
t is propagated either by seeds or layers, and well deserves a place in every 
ollection, both in Europe and in America, wherever it will grow. In France, in 
he Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, there is a tree of this species, which had attained 
he height of fifty-five feet in one hundred and thirty years after planting. 
IT: 
