135 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



five-lobed, unequally toothed. Flowers, greenish-yellow, May 

 and June. Samaras large, wings diverging. Native of Mid- 

 Europe and Western Asia. 



The False Sycamore or Norway Maple (A . platanoides) is 

 the species shown in our figure. It is a native of Europe, 

 introduced to England in 1683. It is a considerable-sized tree, 

 attaining a height of about sixty feet. Its leaves are heart- 

 shaped in outline, five-lobed, sharply pointed, with a few large 

 sharp teeth. The flowers appear in April and May ; bright 

 yellow. The samaras are brown, the wings widely diverging. 



Acer is the old Roman name for the Maple. 



The False Acacia (Robina pseudacada). 



The False Acacia, Common Acacia, Robinia, or Locust-tree, 

 as it is variously styled, is a native of mountain forests in North 

 America, attaining its greatest perfection in Kentucky and 

 Tennessee, where it attains the height of ninety feet and a 

 diameter of four feet. It has been grown in this country for 

 two hundred and fifty years, it being one of the earliest trees 

 introduced from the New World, its graceful habit and light 

 pinnate leaves commending it as an ornamental tree for the 

 plantation. In the United States it is in great repute as an 

 ornament, a shade or a timber-tree ; it grows with great 

 rapidity, and its timber is of great durability, so that our 

 cousins use it largely for ship-building, railway sleepers, and 

 fences. When William Cobbett visited the States he was 

 greatly struck with the useful nature of this tree, and on his 

 return to England spared no pains to make its virtues known 

 to his countrymen, even starting a nursery for the purpose of 

 supplying the young trees, and creating quite a rage for Locust- 

 planting for several years. 



The leaves are long, compound, the leaflets being arranged 

 in a pinnate manner, with an odd leaflet. The stipules are in 

 the form of prickles at the base of the leaf-stalk. It is a 



