Acer 641 
** Teaftets pale beneath. 
54. Acer nikoense, Maximowicz. Japan, Central China. 
Leaflets three; terminal one about 4 inches long; lateral leaflets slightly 
smaller and unequal-sided; elliptical, acute; margin crenate, ciliate; under 
surface villous on the midrib and nerves, scattered pubescent between the 
nerves, Petioles stout, and like the young branchlets, densely woolly. 
A tree, attaining 50 feet in height, with smooth, dark, slightly furrowed 
bark ; leaves turning brilliant scarlet in autumn. Introduced by Maries in 
1881. A tree at Coombe Wood is about 30 feet high. 
55. Acer griseum, Pax. Central China. 
Leaflets three ; terminal leaflet about 2} inches long ; lateral leaflets smaller 
and unequal-sided ; coarsely toothed and ciliate in margin; woolly pubescent 
on the midrib and nerves beneath. Petioles slender, and, like the young 
branchlets, pilose. 
A tree, attaining 4o feet in height, with bark peeling off like a birch. 
Introduced by Wilson in 1901. Young plants at Coombe Wood are about 
3 feet high. (A. H.) 
ACER PSEUDOPLATANUS, Sycamore 
Acer Pseudoplatanus, Linneus, Sp. Pi. 1054 (1753); Loudon, Ard, et Fru, Brit. i. 414, 448, 
(1838); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 749 (1887); Mathieu, More Forestiére, 37 (1897). 
A large tree, attaining about 100 feet in height and 20 feet in girth, Bark’ 
smooth and greyish on young trees, fissuring and scaling off in large strips on 
old trunks. Leaves (Plate 206, Fig. 20) 4 to 8 inches in length and width, cordate 
at the base; lobes five, ovate, acuminate, coarsely and irregularly serrate, lateral 
lobes larger than the basal ones; sinuses extending about half-way to the midrib, 
and very acute at the base; upper surface dark-green, shining, glabrous; lower 
surface paler green and glaucous or sometimes reddish, pubescent along the 
principal nerves; petiole without latex. The leaves usually turn brownish in 
autumn, and are often disfigured by black blotches, caused by the fungus known 
as Rhytisma acerinum, Fr., which, however, does little or no harm to the vitality of 
the tree.” 
Flowers in long pendent racemes, composed of umbellate cymes of three 
flowers each, the central flower in the cyme usually perfect, the two lateral flowers 
staminate, with longer stamens and abortive ovaries; pedicels short; sepals five, 
deciduous, greenish-yellow ; petals five, greenish-yellow, imbricate, inserted at the 
margin of a fleshy hypogynous disc. Stamens eight, inserted on the disc; filaments 
subulate ; pubescent below, ovary tomentose. Fruit: keys divergent at a varying 
1 In the Edinburgh Botanic Garden there are trees about a foot in diameter, which have remarkably white bark, 
resembling that of a birch, The largest sycamore in the garden measured, in 1906, 78 feet in height, and 13 feet 7 inches 
in girth, 2 Cf. Board of Agriculture, Leaflet No. 183. 
