94 ARBORETUM ET FRUT1CETUM BRITANNICUM. 



the young shoots ; as well as in the racemes of flowers being erect. The wood 

 weighs 61 Ib. 9oz. a cubic foot in a green state, and 51 Ib. 15oz. when per- 

 fectly dry. It imikes excellent fuel, and the very best charcoal. It is 

 compact, of a fine grain, sometimes beautifully veined, and takes a 

 high polish. It was celebrated among the ancient Romans for tables. The 

 wood of the roots is frequently knotted ; and, when that is the case, it is 

 used for the manufacture of snuffboxes, pipes, and other fanciful productions. 

 A dry soil suits this species best, and an open situation. Seeds ; which often 

 remain eighteen months in the ground before they vegetate, though a few 

 come up the first spring. The varieties are propagated by layers. 



^ 17. A. CRE'TICUM L. The Cretan Maple. 



Identification. Lin. Spec., 1497.; Dec. Prod., 1. p. 594.; Don's Mill., 1. p. 649. 



Synonyme.s. A. hetcroph^llum Willd. En. ; A. sempervirens L. Mant. ; A. obtusifoliura Sibthorp \ 



R'rablc de Crete, Fr. ; Cretischer Ahorn, Ger. 

 Engravings. Flor. Grsec., t. 561. ; Schmidt Arb., t.15. ; the plate of this species in Arb. Brit., 



1st edit., vol. v. ; our fig. 142., from the Flora Grasca; uAjfg. 163. of the leaves, of the natural 



size, in the plate forming p. 121. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Leaves permanent, cuneated at the base, acutely 3-lobed at 

 the top. Lobes entire, or toothleted ; lateral ones shortest. Corymbs few- 

 flowered, erect. Fruit smooth, with the wings hardly diverging. (Don's 

 Mill.) A diminutive, slow-growing, sub-evergreen tree. Candia, and other 

 islands in the Grecian Archipelago. Height 10ft. to 30ft. Introd. 1752. 

 Flowers greenish yellow ; May and June. Keys brown ; ripe in September. 



There is a general resemblance be- 

 tween A. creticum, A. monspessulanum, 

 and A. campestre ; but the first is 

 readity known from both, by its being 

 evergreen, or sub-evergreen, and by its 

 leaves having shorter footstalks, and 

 being less deeply lobed. In a young 

 state, the leaves are often entire or 

 nearly so. It is oftener seen as a shrub 

 than as a tree ; and it seems to thrive 

 better in the shade than any other 

 ^fcer. Seeds, layers, or grafting on A. 

 campestre. 



Other Species ofPSccr. A. barbatum 

 Michx., given in our first edition, has 

 been omitted, because the plant in the 

 Hort. Soc. Garden has always appeared 

 to^us nothing more than A. jt?lata- 142 . ^ Cercr6ticum . 



noides, and because Torrey and Gray 



consider it a doubtful species, and probably described by Michaux from " speci- 

 mens of A. saccharinum ; the only species, so far as we know, which has the 

 sepals bearded inside." (Tor. and Gray, i. p. 249.) A. opulifolium given in our 

 first edition as a species, we have now satisfied ourselves, from having been able 

 to examine larger plants, is nothing more than a variety of A. Pseudo-Platanus 

 diminished in all its parts. There are several names of species of ;4 v cer in the 

 works of European botanists, the plants of which would require to be pro- 

 cured and studied in a living state : such as A. granatense Bois., a native of 

 Spain ; A. parvifolium Tausch ; also some natives of the Himalayas ; and the 

 following in North America as given by Torrey and Gray ; A. gldbrum Torr., 

 a shrub of the Rocky Mountains; A. tripartitum Nutt. MSS., a shrub of the 

 Rocky Mountains allied to A. glabrum ; A. grandidentdtum Nutt. MSS., a 

 shrub or low tree from the Rocky Mountains, supposed to be the same as A. 

 barbatum Douglas, mentioned in Hooker's Flor. Bor. Amer., i. p. 1 12. The 

 names of several other species, not yet introduced, will be found in the first 

 edition of this work. 



