442 
and white, was in much request for trenchers. It is still used by the turners for bowls, dishes, &c. 
by the saddlers for saddle-trees; and is recommended by Evelyn as excellent for cart and plow 
timber, being light and tough. It is however inferior to the Ash for these purposes. 
Walter Blith recommends the Sycomore as a very quick-growing and thriving wood; on warm, 
sound, rich land as thriving wonderfully, and rising to gallant shade, excellent to make walks and 
shadow-bowers, useful for inward building, where better is wanting, and for firing where wood 
grows scarce. 
It is generally looked upon as proper for under-wood, because it shoots fast from the stool, and 
makes good fuel. 
It is considered as a quick grower, and not of long duration, and yet there are several large, flourish¬ 
ing trees, some of them indeed now tending towards decay, 1792 , in the Master's piece, at Sidney- 
Sussex College in Cambridge, which were planted there in 1607 . 
In spring and autumn, this species will pour forth from the wounded stem, in the same manner 
as the Birch, abundance of saccharine juice; from which a good wine may be made, as Mr. Ray affirms, 
from the information of Dr. Martin Lister. 
There are two varieties of this tree common in the nurseries; one which has only broader leaves, 
producing a pleasing variety in the tints of large plantations. 
Species 10 . Scarlet-flowering Maple . (Acer Rurrum.) 
A native of Virginia. It rises twenty feet. . There are two varieties with us. Var. l. The 
Virginian scarlet-flowering Maple. 2 . Sir Charles Wager’s Maple, with paler flowers, and in large 
clusters. This species was cultivated in 1655 by Mr. John Tradescant, jun.* It is propagated with 
us for the sake of the scarlet flowers, which come out early in the spring. In Pennsylvania, where 
it grows in the swamps, the natives use it for almost all sorts of wood-work; with the bark they dye 
a dark blue, and make a good black ink. The Canadians tap the tree for the juice, of which they 
make sugar and treacle. 
Species 11 . American Sugar Maple . (Acer Saccharinum.) 
Rises to forty feet. Native of North America. Was introduced here in 1735 by Peter Collinson. 
This Tree has been noticed by us at large at p. 373. 
Species 12 . Tartarian Maple. (Acer Tartaricum.) 
It is an inhabitant of southern Russia; by the Tanais, Volga, &c. The wood is whitish, with 
some brownish veins. The seeds are used as astringents by the Calmuc Tartars, boiled with milk 
and butter, 
Linnaeus describes this as a lofty shrub, or rather a low tree, not exceeding twenty feet in height; 
with leaves like those of Hornbeam, having scarcely any apparent lobes: with flowers in racemes, as 
in the Great Maple, but the raceme compound, and the flowers petaloid. They appear early, and 
are sometimes followed by ripe seeds in our gardens. Cultivated 1759 by Mr. Philip Miller. + 
CULTURE. 
The Genus Acer Maple consists of deciduous trees, most of them sufficiently hardy. They are 
easily propagated by sowing their seeds, soon after they are ripe, in a bed of common earth, covering 
* Hort. Kew. 
f Pallas. 
X Hort. Kew. 
