150 ACER 



Var. AUREO-MARGINATUM. Leaflets marked as in the common variegated 

 box-elder, but with yellow instead of white. 



Var. AUREUM (syn. odessanum). Leaflets wholly yellow ; this variety is 

 one of the best of golden-coloured trees, and retains its colour until autumn. 



Var. CALIFORNICUM, WesmaeL Judging by young trees at Kew, this variety 

 appears to be a much faster grower, with larger leaflets, than the type. The 

 chief botanical difference is furnished by the dense covering of grey down 

 beneath the leaves, and by the downy branchlets and fruits, although this is not 

 so apparent in cultivated as in native specimens. Native of California. Forms 

 intermediate between this variety and the type are said to occur in Arizona, 

 Texas, Missouri, etc. 



Var. CRISPUM, Don. Leaflets curled, often deformed ; shrubby. 



Var. LACINIATUM (syn. heterophyllum). Leaflets reduced to a linear or 

 lanceolate shape, and with more or less deeply cut margins. 



Var. VIOLACEUM, Kirchner. Young shoots covered with a purplish bloom. 



A. NiKOENSE, Maximowicz. NlKKO- MAPLE. 



(Garden and Forest, 1893, fig. 26.) 



A deciduous tree, up to 40 or 50 ft. high in a wild state, with a trunk 12 to 

 1 8 ins. in diameter and a round-topped habit ; branchlets hairy. Leaves com- 

 posed of three leaflets on a stout, very hairy main stalk ; terminal leaflet short- 

 stalked, oval ; 3 to 5 ins. long, i to 2\ ins. wide ; the side ones obliquely ovate, 

 stalkless, and somewhat smaller ; all are either entire at the margins or 

 shallowly and sparsely toothed," and more or less hairy beneath. Flowers 

 yellow, J in. diameter, produced usually three together on drooping hairy 

 stalks | in. long. Fruit with thick, brown-felted nutlets ; keys i-^ to 2 ins. long ; 

 wings | in. broad, rounded, nearly parallel to each other, or diverging to 60 

 (in cultivation often not so large). 



Native of Japan, where, according to Sargent, it is widely distributed, but 

 not common ; also of Central China. Introduced by Messrs Veitch in 1881, 

 in whose nursery at Coombe Wood is one of the first trees raised from Maries' 

 seeds, now 25 to 30 ft. high. Compared with many maples this is not a quick 

 grower, which in small gardens may be counted an advantage, especially as th 

 tree has a most interesting and distinct appearance at all times, and is very 

 beautiful in autumn when the foliage turns rich red. The winter buds are long 

 and pyramid-shaped, with overlapping scales. In wild specimens collected by 

 Henry in Central China the leaflets are 7 ins. long and 3 ins. wide. 



A. OBLONGUM, Wallich. 



A sub-evergreen or deciduous tree, found both in the Himalaya and China. 

 In the Himalaya it grows 50 ft. in height, but plants from that region are too 

 tender for our climate. In China it is quite common in various parts, especially 

 in Hupeh, whence the plants now in cultivation were introduced by Wilson ; 

 there it appears to be most frequently 20 to 25 ft. high. The plants raised from 

 Wilson's seeds in 1901 seem likely to prove hardy, both at Coombe Wood and 

 Kew. It is a tree without down ; the leaves hard and leathery in texture, 

 normally oblong or oblong-ovate, 2 to 4 ins. long, f to i| ins. wide ; pointed, 

 tapered or rounded at the base, neither lobed nor toothed ; distinctly glaucous 

 beneath. (They are considerably larger in the Himalayan form.) But although 

 the entire-margined, unlobed leaves distinguish this maple in its normal state 

 from all other cultivated species, the young tree at Kew has very distinctly three- 

 lobed, sharply toothed leaves as well as the normal ones ; in these the lobes 

 are near the base, the apex is much drawn out, and they are sometimes over 2 

 ins. across. Henry has noted the occurrence of these trilobed leaves on 



