108 Sapindacee—-Al cer. 
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. campéstris. 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. Pseucdoplatanus. 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, purpurascens with leaves of a purplish tinge, and 
erythrocarpum with red fruits. 
3. A. Monspessulanwm.—aA 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. erioctrpum, syn. al, dusycatrpon.—a veryrapid-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. vriubrum. Curled Maple.—A large tree with ample 
foliage. Leaves 3- to 5-lobed, with acute sinuses and irregular 
tecth, pale underneath. The flowers are red or scarlet, and are 
produced in great profusion in Spriny 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. af. saecharinum. Sugar Maple or Bird’s-eye Maple.— 
