1 08 Sapindacece A ccr. 



4 ACER. 



Trees or shrubs with opposite deciduous palmately lobed or 

 divided leaves and small polygamous racemose flowers. Disk 

 annular, fleshy, lobed. Fruit of two spreading samaras with 

 long wings. About fifty species, inhabiting the temperate 

 regions of the North. The ancient Latin name of the Maple. 

 Many of the species are very ornamental rapid-growing trees. 



1. A. campestris. Common Maple. This is the only in- 

 digenous species, rarely seen as a tree, though commonly seen 

 in hedgerows in the South of England. The leaves are reni- 

 form and 5-lobed ; lobes acute or obtuse in different forms. 

 The bark is corky. 



2. A. Pseudopldtanus, False Sycamore. This has been so 

 extensively planted as to appear wild in many localities. It is 

 a native of Central Europe and West Asia. A fast-growing 

 handsome tree, valuable for planting in bleak places near the 

 sea, etc. The ordinary form is too well known to need de- 

 scription, but there are some varieties we must allude to, viz. : 

 variegatum in which the leaves are irregularly striped with 

 yellow, purpurdscens with leaves of a purplish tinge, and 

 erythrocdrpum with red fruits. 



3. A. Monspessuldnum. A handsome small tree with a 

 rounded head. The leaves are comparatively small, coriaceous, 

 shining, and palmately 3-lobed ; lobes very obtuse. This tree 

 has a very pretty appearance in Spring when clothed with its 

 yellowish-green flowers before the leaves are fully developed. 

 It is a native of Central Europe, and quite hardy in Britain. 



4. A. eriocdrpum,sjn. A. dasycdrpon. A very rapid-growing 

 ornamental tree from 70 to 90 feet high with large deeply 

 5-lobed and toothed leaves bright green above and silvery white 

 beneath, which assume a pretty yellow tint in Autumn. 

 Flowers in umbellate clusters preceding the leaves. Fruit 

 large, densely hairy when young, eventually glabrous. A 

 North American species. 



5. A. rubrum. Curled Maple. A large tree with ample 

 foliage* Leaves 3- to 5-lobed, with acute sinuses and irregular 

 teeth, pale underneath. The flowers are red or scarlet, and are 

 produced in great profusion in Spring before the appearance of 

 the leaves. Fruit-lobes nearly erect. There are varieties in which 

 the foliage is variegated with white or yellow. North America. 



6. A. saccharlnum. Sugar Maple or Bird's-eye Maple. 



