TREES AND SHRUBS. 



3 



leaves, "bright green above and glaucous beneath, 

 which in autumn turn to a brownish-yellow. It is 

 a native of Western Asia, and is found in gardens 

 under the names of A. caucasicum, A. iberieum, and 

 A. tauricum. 



A. insigne — a native of Eastern Persia — resembles 

 the common Sycamore in foliage, but differs a good 

 deal in the inflorescence, which is an erect panicle. 

 This species, too, is very remarkable on account of 

 the lateness of the season when growth commences ; 

 it is later in developing leaves than any other 

 Maple, or than even the Oak or Ash ; in late spring 

 the large crimson leaf-scales are very conspicuous. 



A. japonicum is a Japanese bush, with leaves 

 much like those of the United States A. circinatum, 

 and large deep purplish-red flowers. 



A. Zobelii, from the mountains of Southern Italy, 

 is a distinct Maple, related to the Norway Maple, 

 A. platanoides, but differs markedly in its more 

 erect fastigiate habit, and in the firmer texture and 

 somewhat different tint of its leaves ; the young 

 shoots, too, are clothed with a bluish-grey glauces- 

 cence. 



A. macrophyllum, a Californian species, has large, 

 downy, Plane-like leaves, and long, dense, pendu- 

 lous racemes of greenish-yellow flowers, which are 

 followed by large, hairy fruits. When in flower, 

 before the full development of the leaves, as well as 

 when in fruit, this Maple is a decidedly distinct 

 and ornamental one ; it is, moreover, a very rapid 

 grower. 



A. monspessidanum, from North Africa, South 

 Europe, and Western Asia, makes a dense round- 

 headed tree, and is ornamental either when clothed 

 with its pendulous pale yellow corymbs, or when 

 laden with its clusters of reddish fruits ; the leaves 

 are firm in texture, and dark green in colour, with 

 three entire lobes. This will grow, and flower and 

 fruit freely, in poor, dry, gravelly soils, but under 

 more favourable conditions will attain a much 

 larger size in the same time; it varies in height 

 from fifteen feet (or even less) to forty feet. 



A. opulifolium. — A species very widely distributed 

 throughout the Mediterranean regions; it forms a 

 bush or small tree, with generally five-lobed, red- 

 stalked, hairy leaves. The yellowish flowers are 

 developed from near the tips of the branches, just 

 before the appearance of the leaves. The variety 

 obtusatum is a much stronger grower, and attains a 

 height of forty feet or more ; the leaves, too, are 

 larger, of a darker green, and are densely clothed 

 beneath with a rusty-coloured tomentum. The de- 

 caying foliage assumes a rich brown tint in autumn. 



A. palmatum. — Probably no single species of any 

 deciduous shrub or tree hardy in Great Britain ex- 

 hibits so extreme a range of variation in colour, form 



and size of foliage, &c, as this, which not unfre- 

 quently is met with in books under the name of 

 A. polymorphism. It is a native of Japan, and like 

 so many of the plants from that wonderful horticul- 

 tural region, it has been cultivated by the Japanese 

 from time immemorial. A good many gardeners 

 seem afraid to trust out of doors the different 

 bright -coloured forms of this beautiful deciduous 

 shrub, but if they were to give them a fair trial the 

 result in the great majority of instances could not 

 fail to be eminently satisfactory. At Messrs. 

 Veitch's they grow freely in a cold, clayey gravel, 

 on somewhat exposed banks ; in other spots they 

 flourish in a peaty soil. Only a selection of the 

 more remarkable of the numerous varieties are here 

 mentioned ; for a full account of the species and its 

 variations the reader is referred to the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle for July, 1881. The ordinary type, which 

 represents one group of forms, has generally small, 

 green, deeply five-lobed leaves ; the septemlobum 

 group have somewhat larger leaves, with seven or 

 nine lobes ; and the dissectum series have leaves 

 with seven or nine deeply pinnatifid overlapping 

 lobes. 



Of these three sections there are a regular series 

 of forms varying in colour, &c. Of the palmatum 

 set, A. p. aureum, a good grower, with long-stalked 

 rather large leaves, light green and yellowish when 

 young, gold and orange-scarlet in autumn, is one of 

 the best. A. p. crispum, with red-stalked, curled green 

 leaves, and a habit like that of a miniature Lombardy 

 Poplar, is also both distinct and desirable. Amongst 

 the best of the remaining forms are A. p. linearilobum, 

 with long, almost entire, very narrow lobes, and 

 sports from this bearing distinctive names in nurse- 

 ries, with purple or rich red foliage. Some of the 

 stronger growers of the septemlobum group are used 

 as stocks on which to graft the weaker growers. 

 The following is a selection of the best and most 

 distinct members ; sanguineum and atropurpureum 

 have red and dark purplish leaves respectively; 

 s. elegans has narrow deeply-cut lobes, light green 

 in colour, suffused with red when young. S. varie- 

 gatum has young leaves and stalks red, the older 

 ones splashed with rose and white. The dissectum 

 group are all very beautiful plants, with finely-cut, 

 Eern-like foliage ; the type has light, bright green 

 leaves ; d. tinctum has the leaf-margins tinged with 

 red, and in d. ornatum the whole leaf is a uniform 

 deep red. 



A. pennsylvanicum, from the Eastern United State3, 

 is best known in English nurseries under the name 

 of Snake-bark Maple. If only on account of the 

 beauty of its bark — which in the young wood is 

 green, beautifully striped with white and black — ■ 

 this should be very generally grown. It attains a 



