94 ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM EBRITANNICUM. 
the young shoots; as well as in the racemes of flowers being erect. The wood 
weighs 61 lb. 90z. a cubic foot ina green state, and 51 lb. 150z. when _per- 
fectly dry. It makes excellent fuel, and the very best charcoal. It is 
compact, of a fine grain, sometimes beautifully veined, and takes a 
high polish. It was celebrated among the ancient Romans for tables. The 
wood of the roots is frequently knotted; and, when that is the case, it is 
used for the manufacture of snuffboxes, pipes, and other fanciful productions. 
A dry soil suits this species best, and an open situation. Seeds ; which often 
remain eighteen months in the ground before they vegetate, though a few 
come up the first spring. The varieties are propagated by layers. 
¥ 17. A. cre’ticum L. The Cretan Maple. 
Identification. Lin. Spec., 1497.; Dec. Prod.,1. p.594.; Don’s Mill., 1. p.649. 
Synonymes. A.heterophyllum Willd. En.; A. sempervirens L. Mant.; A. obtusifdliam Sibthorp ; 
F’rable de Créte, Fv.; Cretischer Ahorn, Ger. S 
Engravings. Flor. Grec., t.361.; Schmidt Arb., t.15.; the plate of this species in Arb. Brit., 
Ist edit., vol. v. ; our fig. 142., from the Flora Greca; and jig. 163. of the leaves, of the natural 
size, in the plate forming p. 121. 
Spec. Char., 5c. Leaves permanent, cuneated at the base, acutely 3-lobed at 
the top. Lobes entire, or toothleted ; lateral ones shortest. Corymbs few- 
flowered, erect. Fruit smooth, with the wings hardly diverging. (Don's 
Mill.) A diminutive, slow-growing, sub-evergreen tree. Candia, and other 
islands in the Grecian Archipelago. Height 10 ft. to 30ft. Introd. 1752. 
Flowers greenish yellow ; May and June. Keys brown; ripe in September. 
There is a general resemblance be- 
tween 4. créticum, A. monspessulanum, 
and A. campéstre; but the first is 
readily known from both, by its being 
evergreen, or sub-evergreen, and by its 
leaves having shorter footstalks, and 
being less deeply lobed. In a young 
state, the leaves are often entire or 
nearly so, It is oftener seen asa shrub 
than as a tree ; and it seems to thrive 
better in the shade than any other 
Acer. Seeds, layers, or grafting on A. 
campéstre, 
Other Species of A’cer.—A.barbatum 
Micher., given in our first edition, has 
been omitted, because the plant in the 
Hort. Soc. Garden has always appeared 
to us nothing more than 4A. plata- 14%. Acerekicum: 
ndides, and because Torrey and Gray 
consider it a doubtful species, and probably described by Michaux from “ speci- 
mens of A. saccharinum ; the only species, so far as we know, which has the 
sepals bearded inside.” (Lor. and Gray, i. p. 249.) A. opulifdlium given in our 
first edition as a species, we have now satisfied ourselves, from having been able 
to examine Jarger plants, is nothing more than a variety of 4. Psetiido-Platanus 
diminished in all its parts. There are several names of species of A‘cer in the 
works of European botanists, the plants of which would require to be pro- 
cured and studied in a living state: such as A. granaténse Bois., a native of 
Spain ; A. parvifdlium Tausch; also some natives of the Himalayas ; and the 
following in North America as given by Torrey and Gray ; A. glébrum Torr., 
a shrub of the Rocky Mountains; A. ¢ripartitum Nutt. MSS., a shrub of the 
Rocky Mountains allied to A. glabrum; A. grandidentatum Nutt. MSS., a 
shrub or low tree from the Rocky Mountains, supposed to be the same as A. 
harbatum Douglas, mentioned in Hooker’s Flor. Bor. Amer., i. p- 112. The 
names of several other species, not yet introduced, will be found in the first 
edition of this work 
