acee] 



Clje ULiza&uxr) at tSotanji. 



s 



said to tie the most valuable of all woods, 

 and it may be converted into excellent 

 charcoal. Prom the sap collected in early 



Acer Pseudo-platanus. 



spring, sugar may be made, but not in re- 

 munerating quantities. The name Sycamore 

 was given to it at an early period, from a 

 supposition that it was the tree mentioned 

 in the New Testament, which, however, as 

 the etymology indicates, is a species of fig, 

 (sykun, a fig, and morea, a mulberry-tree, 

 resembling the former in its fruit, and the 

 latter in its leaf), Ficus Sycomorus. In 

 Scotland it is popularly known as the 

 Plane. 



The Maple (A. caynpestre) is a low hedge 

 tree most conspicuous for the golden and 

 purple tints of its foliage in autumn. The 

 gnarled stems and knotted roots of this 

 species have long been prized by turners 

 and cabinet-makers for making choice ar- 

 ticles of furniture. The wood also makes 

 excellent fuel, and the best of charcoal. 

 But the most important species of this 

 family is the Sugar Maple (A.saccharhium), 

 a native of North America. This tree forms 

 extensive forests in Canada, NewBrunswick, 

 and Nova Scotia, and yields a saccharine 

 juice in such abundance that maple-sugar 

 is an important article of manufacture. It 

 has been computed that in the northern 

 parts of the two States of New York and 

 Pennsylvania there are ten millions of 

 acres which produce these trees, in the pro- 

 portion of thirty to an acre. The season for 

 tapping is in February and March, while 

 the cold continues intense and the snow is 

 still on the ground. A tree of ordinary size 

 yields from fifteen to thirty gallons of sap, 

 from which are made from two to four 

 pounds of sugar. The tree is not at all 

 injured by the operation, but continues 

 to flourish after having been annually 

 tapped for forty years without interruption. 

 Greater facilities of intercommunication 

 and the decreased cost of cane-sugar, which 

 is far superior, have tended of late years 

 greatly to check the manufacture of sugar 

 from the maple. Old trees of this species 



are liable to a peculiarity of growth which 

 gives to their timber the knotted structure 

 known by the name of bird's-eye maple. 

 The wood called ' curled maple ' is obtained 

 from old distorted trunks of A. rubrum, 

 also a native of America. For an enumera- 

 tion of other species, see Loudon's Arbo- 

 retum. The common maple is the badge of 

 the clan Oliphant. [C. A. J.] 



According to Mr. Hind, the ash-leaved 

 maple, Acer Negundo, is tapped for sugar 

 in the Red River settlement of Canada "W. 



ACERACE2E (Acera ; Acerinece ; the order 

 of Maples). A natural order of trees and 

 shrubs inhabiting Europe, the temperate 

 parts of Asia, the north of India, and North 

 America. The order is unknown in Africa 

 and the southern hemisphere. The most 

 important product is the sweet sap of some 

 species, from which sugar is extracted. It 

 is said, however, that their juices become 

 acrid as the season advances. They yield a 

 light useful timber. The bark of some is 

 astringent, and yields reddish-brown and 

 yellow colours. The order only contains 

 three genera, and rather more than fifty 

 species. 



ACERANTHUS. A genus of Berber idacece 

 containing a single species from Japan, a 

 slender plant nearly allied to Epimedium, 

 but having plain and not spurred petals. 

 [W. C .] 



ACERAS. An Orchis without a spur, 

 there being no other difference between 

 the two genez-a, except that Aceras has 

 only one pollen gland instead of two. The 

 man-orchis, Aceras anthropophora. so called 

 because of a fancied resemblance between 

 its lip and the body of a man hung by the 

 head, is common in meadows and grassy 

 slopes all over Europe. It has greenish- 

 yellow flowers bordered with red, a pair of 

 oblong knobs or tubercles for its roots, and 

 a heavy rather unpleasant odour. Aceras 

 hircina, the lizard-orchis, is a much finer 

 and rarer plant, with long spikes of dirty 

 rose-coloured flowers, the middle lobe of 

 whose lip has the form of a long, twisted 

 strap ; they emit an unpleasant odour like 

 that of a goat. This species is occasionally 

 found in chalky districts all over the tem- 

 perate regions of Europe. Haller says that 

 the bruised root increases the flow of milk 

 in milch cattle. Other species occur in 

 Asia, reaching as far as Gossain Than in 

 the Himalayas; and one {A. secundiflora) 

 found in Barbary and Madeira is occasion- 

 ally seen living in the gardens of curious 

 collectors. 



ACE ROSE. Needle-shaped; as in the 

 leaves of heaths and pine trees. 



ACETABULARIA. A beautiful genus of 

 calcareous green-spored Alga?, the species 

 of which resemble little umbrellas or such 

 delicate gill-bearing fungi as Copriyius pli- 

 catilis. An erect articulated stem bears 

 above a whorl of threads which are united 

 laterally so as to form an umbilicate orbi- 

 cular disk, from the centre of which arises 

 a bunch of delicate branched threads. The 



