136 ACER 



A. BUERGERIANUM, Miquel. BUERGER'S MAPLE. 



(A. trifidum, Hooker ; A. trinerve, DippeL} 



A deciduous, small tree, with distinctly three-lobed leaves i^ to 3^ ins. long, 

 and about the same from tip to tip of the side lobes, which point forward, and 

 are triangular and pointed ; the leaf is distinctly three-nerved, and tapers to 

 the rounded base ; margins irregularly, sometimes obscurely, toothed ; upper 

 surface bright dark green, lower one dull and slightly glaucous. Except for 

 a loose floss on the lower surface when quite young, which soon falls away, 

 the leaf is smooth ; leaf-stalk slender, as long or longer than the blade. 

 Flowers in a downy, umbel-like corymb, numerous, small. Fruit with keys 

 | to i in. long ; the wings J in. wide, parallel or connivent. 



Native of China and Japan ; introduced to Kew in 1896, where it thrives 

 very well and grows quickly. It came as A. trinerve, and is also known as 

 A. trifidum. 



A. CAMPESTRE, Linnceus. COMMON MAPLE. 



A deciduous, round-headed tree, usually between 20 and 35 ft. in height, 

 but occasionally over 70 ft. Leaves five-lobed, palmate, up to 4 ins. across 

 (usually 2 to 3 ins.), somewhat less in length, downy beneath and at the edges ; 

 the stalk about as long as the blade, exuding a milky sap when broken. 

 Flowers few, green, produced in small, and at first erect, corymbs. Fruits with 

 horizontally spreading wings I in. or more long, \ in. wide, usually downy. 



Native of Europe, including Britain, and a common hedgerow tree in the 

 south of England, where two forms are distinguished by botanists : HEBECARPUM, 

 De Candolle^ the commoner one with downy fruits ; LEIOCARPUM, De Candolle 

 (syn. collinum), with smooth ones. 



When well-grown the common maple is a rather handsome, neatly shaped, 

 small tree, although often enough only a mere bush in English hedgerows. 

 It makes a close, neat hedge, and although not much used in England is 

 popular on the Continent for the purpose. The famous hedges in the Imperial 

 Gardens at Schoenbrunn, near Vienna, are largely formed of this maple 

 perpendicular walls of verdure 50 ft. high. Mr Elwes decribes the wood as one 

 of the best of its class, having a fine grain, and hard. Besides the two varieties 

 mentioned above as wild in Britain, there are also in cultivation the 

 following : 



Var. COMPACTUM. A dwarf bush of very close, compact growth, only a 

 few feet high, and usually broader than it is high. 



Var. POSTELENSE. Leaves golden yellow ; very effective in spring-time. 



Var. PULVERULENTUM (syn. maculatum). Leaves thickly specked and 

 blotched with white. 



Var. SCHWERINII. Leaves purple on first expanding, afterwards turning 

 green. 



Var. VARIEGATUM. Leaves margined with white. 



A. CAPILLIPES, Maximowicz. 



A deciduous tree, sometimes 30 to 35 ft. high, the branchlets erect when 

 young and marked with whitish stripes running lengthwise ; branchlets smooth. 

 Leaves reddish when young, three-lobed; 3 to 5 ins. long, about three- 

 fourths wide ; smooth, doubly toothed, the terminal lobe triangular and larger 

 than the side ones ; veins and stalk usually red. Flowers greenish white, in 

 drooping slender racemes 2^ to 4 ins. long. Fruits smooth, numerous, in 

 drooping racemes ; keys \ to f in. long ; wings rounded at the end, \ in. wide, 

 spreading at an angle of 120 to almost horizontal. 



