THE MAPLE. 
53 
Plane, misled of old by the similarity of the leaves, and the fact 
that patches of the fine ash-grey bark flake off, as in the true 
Plane, showing other tints. It grows to a height of sixty or 
even eighty feet so quickly that it is full-grown when only fifty 
or sixty years old, though it is supposed to live from a hundred 
and fifty to two hundred and fifty years. Like that of the 
Common Maple, the wood of the Sycamore is firm and fine- 
giained, which does credit to the efforts of the French-polisher. 
The leaves are more heart-shaped, but cut into five lobes, whose 
edges are unequally toothed ; they are six or eight inches across. 
The flowers are similar to those of the Common Maple, but 
larger, and in a long hanging raceme, which has a rather fine 
appearance. The samaras are scimitar-shaped and red-brown, 
about an inch and a half long. These are produced freely after 
the tree is about twenty years old. Like many other Maples, 
the Sycamore has sap which contains much sugar. Some of 
this appears also to exude through the leaves, for they are often 
found to be quite sticky to the touch. The black patches so 
frequent on Sycamore leaves are the work of a small fungus — 
Rhytisma acerinum. 
The Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) is a tree of much more 
recent (1683) introduction from the Continent. Its height is 
from thirty to sixty feet, and its early growth is very rapid. The 
leaves are even larger than those of Sycamore, of similar shape, 
but the lobes are only slightly toothed. The clusters of bright 
yellow flowers are almost erect ; the tree does not produce seed 
until it is between forty and fifty years old. 
The Maple was the Mapel-treow or Mapulder of the Anglo- 
Saxons ; it was originally the Celtic mapwl, and the name 
indicated those knotty excrescences on the trunk from which the 
cabinet-maker got the mottled wood that was so highly prized 
in early times for the making of bowls and table-tops, for which 
fabulous prices have been paid. 
