THE MAPLE FAMILY. I/I 



very pale or tender yellowish-green tint. The Norway Maple, 

 A. platanoides, and the Montpelier Maple, A. monspessulaniim, 

 are very bright and attractive in the spring when covered with 

 clusters of golden-green flowers ; and even the common wild 

 Maple, A. campestre, is a lovely party-coloured tree when stained 

 with the foliage of the waning year. The Negundo, or Ash- 

 leaved Maple (A. Negundo}, forms a very attractive specimen ; 

 while its variegated variety is one of the most attractive of all 

 hardy 'trees, its snowy-splashed leaves contrasting most effec- 

 tively with the deeper-toned foliage of the purple or copper- 

 leaved Beech, or with the glossy deep-green Yews, Portugal 

 Laurels, and other inhabitants of the shrubbery border. There 

 are also some very attractive golden-leaved forms of the com- 

 mon Maple; and these and the white-leaved Negundo are 

 worked on their respective green-leaved types as a stock, for 

 which purpose they are readily multiplied either from seeds, 

 layers, or cuttings, the two former methods being preferable 

 and most generally practised. The cut - leaved or purple 

 Japanese Maples (A. dissectuni] are very attractive foliage-plants, 

 although not thoroughly hardy, and may be readily in- 

 creased by layering, budding, or grafting on the stem or roots 

 of one of the commoner and strong-growing forms of the same 

 species as a stock. Mr Rivers recommends budding on A. 

 palmatum as a stock for this group. Nearly all the hardy 

 species produce their " keys," or winged seeds, freely ; and 

 these should be gathered in October and sown in prepared 

 seed-beds in the open air at once. Many of the species will 

 grow on the common Maple as a stock, and may either be 

 flute or cleft grafted in the spring or budded in the early sum- 

 mer. It is a curious fact that the recently-discovered A. gin- 

 nala, a native of Amooria, does not succeed when grafted on 

 A. tartaricum, which is nevertheless so closely allied to it that 

 some botanists regard the two as forms of one species. It suc- 

 ceeds perfectly on the common A. pseudo-platanus as a stock. 

 The Sugar-Maple (A. saccharinuni) is utilised in America and 

 Canada, its juice or sap, which is obtained in large quantities by 

 tapping the trees in early spring, being evaporated for the sugar 

 it contains. From two to four pounds of sugar are obtained 

 from a full-sized tree every year ; for it is a singular fact that 

 the operation does not appear to injure the trees, which are 

 frequently tapped every spring for thirty or forty years in suc- 

 cession. The old gnarled or knotted stems of A. campestre, 

 A. saccharinum (Bird's-eye Maple wood of the cabinetmakers), 

 and A. rubrurn (curled Maple wood) are highly prized for the 

 manufacture of ornamental furniture. 



