94 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICU.M. 



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

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

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

 (!on!pact, 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. 



5? 17. A. cre'ticum L. The Cretan Maple. 



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



Synonymes. A. lieterophyllum Willd. En. ; A. serapervirens L. Mant. ; A. obtusif&lium Sibthorp ; 



E'rable de CretH, Fr. \ Cretischer Ahorn, Ger. 

 Engravings. Flor. Gr33C., t.361. ; Schmidt Arb., t.l5. ; the plate of this species in Arb. Brit., 



1st edit., vol. V. ; our fit;. 142., from the Flora GrEca; and Jjg. 163. of the leaves, of the natural 



size, in the plate forming p. 121. 



Spec. Char,, Sfc. Leaves permanent, cuneated at the base, acutely 3-Iobed at 

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

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

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

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

 readilj' 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 

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

 campestre. 



Other Species of k^ccr. A. barbatum 

 Mich.v., 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. plata- 

 nciides, and because Torrey and Gray 

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

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

 sepals bearded inside." {Tor. and Grai/, 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-Pkitanus 

 diminished in all its parts. There are several names of species of ^l^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. granatcnse Bois., a native of 

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

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

 a siirub of the Rocky Moimtains; A. tr'tpartltum Nutt. MSS., a shrub of the 

 Kocky 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 Vougla.^, mentioned in Hooker's F/or. Bar. Amer., i. p. 1 12. The 

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

 edition of this work 



142 .4^cer creticum. 



