Acer 663 
handsome bark with purple and green streaks, smoother than that of the stock. 
At Park Place, Henley, there is a tree 51 feet high, and 43 feet in girth at 4 feet 
from the ground, dividing above this into several stems. The bark is smooth and 
grey, and close to the trunk are several suckers about 4 feet high. (A. H.) 
* 
ACER OPALUS, Itatian Marie 
Acer Opalus, Miller, Dict. ed. 8, No. 8 (1768); Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 436 (1789) ; Loudon, A7é. e¢ 
Frut. Brit. i. 420 (1838). 
Acer italum, Lauth, De Acere, 32 (1781); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 762 (1887). 
Acer opulifolium, Villar, Hist. Pl. Dauph. i. 333 (1786); Loudon, Avd. e¢ Frut. Brit. i. 421 (1838); 
Mathieu, Hore Forestiére, 40 (1897). 
Acer rotundifolium, Lamarck, Encycl. iii. 382 (1789). 
A tree attaining about 50 feet in height, often met with in the wild state 
as a mere shrub. Bark smooth and grey on young trees, fissured and darker in 
colour on old trees. Young branchlets glabrous, becoming dark red in their 
first autumn. Leaves (Plate 206, Fig. 14), variable in size and shape, usually about 
24 inches long by 3 inches wide, cordate at the base, five-lobed; lobes short, ovate- 
triangular, acute at the apex, irregularly toothed ; sinuses shallow, usually rounded at 
the base ; upper surface dark green, shining ; lower surface dull, pale, with scattered 
pubescence, denser on the nerves and forming axil-tufts, in some forms glabrescent ; 
petiole without milky sap. 
Flowers appearing very early, before the leaves, in sessile corymbs, yellow; 
pedicels long, glabrous or pubescent. Fruit, ripening in autumn, brown, glabrous ; 
keys about an inch long; wings more or less divergent, only slightly narrowed 
at the base. 
In winter the twigs are shining, glabrous. Buds conical, obtuse at the apex ; 
outer scales about twelve, pubescent and ciliate. Lateral buds shortly stalked, 
arising from the twigs at an acute angle. Leaf-scars very slender, crescentic, 
three-dotted, and fringed on their upper margins with white hairs; opposite 
pairs of leaf-scars often joined around the stem. 
VARIETIES 
This species is very variable as regards the foliage. A. hispantcum, Pourret, 
which grows in Spain, and Acer Martint, Jordan, a rare tree in Savoy and 
Basses-Alpes in France, are connecting links between 4. Ofalus and A. hyrcanum. 
1. Var. obtusatum. 
Acer obtusatum, Kitaibel, in Willdenow, Sp. PZ. iv. 984 (1805); Loudon, A7d. et Frut. Brit. i. 420 
(1838); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 763 (1887). 
Leaves (Plate 206, Fig. 16) larger, 4 inches or more in width, more rounded 
in outline, more coriaceous, more densely pubescent beneath ; lobes short, broad, 
slightly and crenately toothed ; basal lobes very short. 
