Ord. ACERACEiE. 



Arbores, foliis oppositis palmatinerviis et palmatilobis seu 

 3 - 5-foliolatis, vernatione plicatis, stipiilis nullis : dicotyledo- 

 neee, regulares, digynm ; asstivatione imbricativa ; petalis 

 calycis 4-9-lobi decidui lobis niimero seqnalibiis, vel abortu 

 nullis, cum staminibus 4 - 12 disco glanduloso hypogyno seu 

 perigyno insertis ; ovario bilobo e carpellis 2 columellse cen- 

 trali adnatis composito ; ovulis geminis facie ventrali amphi- 

 trope adnatis, micropyle infera ; fructu e coccis samaroideis 2 

 monospermis ; embryone exalbuminoso conduplicato, nunc 

 spiraliter convoluto, cotyledonibus germinatione foliaceis. 



AcERA, Juss. Gen. p. 50, & Ann. Mus. IS. p. 477. 



AcERiNEiE, DC. Theor. Elem. ed. 2. p. 244, & Prodr. 1. p. 593. Endl. 



Gen. p. 1055. 

 AcERACEiE, Lindl. Introd. Nat. Syst. ed. 2. p. 81, «& Veg. Kingd. p. 387. 



The Maple Family comprises on]}^ the typical genus Acer, with Ne- 

 gundo, which is scarcely distinct from it. Dobinea, a shrub of Nepaul, 

 is also appended to the order, but probably it does not truly belong to it. 

 While the two orders to which it is related, namely, the Malpighiaceae and 

 tlie Sapindacese, are principally tropical, the Maple Family, on the other 

 hand, is found in temperate regions alone. It is also restricted to the north- 

 ern hemisphere. The Maples, of which there are sixty or seventy known 

 species, are characteristic forest-trees of the northern temperate zone, both 

 in the Old World and the New. They affect the eastern and interior parts 

 of continents, with extreme climate, ratlier than the western ; being most 

 numerous in the United States and in Japan and Nortlicrn China ; more nu- 

 merous in the Atlantic United States and in tlie Kooky Mountains than in 

 Oregon and California; and far more numerous in .Ta])an and the Himalayan 

 region than in Europe. 



The second genus, Negundo, is not represented in Europe, and has been 

 deemed to be peculiar to North America, where it occurs across the whole 

 breadth of the continent, in three by no means well distinguislied species, 

 one of them belonging to the Middh; and Sfnitlinrn United States (extending 



