474 
OCTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Acer. 
A'CER.* * Barren flowers intermixed. 
Calyx five-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Caps, two or 
three, one-seeded, terminating in a leaf-like expan¬ 
sion. 
A. pseudo-plat'anus. Leaves five-lobed, blunt, unequally serrated : 
flowers in compound, pendent bunches. 
E. Bot. 303— Hunt . Evel. p. 200. ii. 193. Ed. i. at p. 293— Nat. Delin. ii. 
21. 1. at p. 312— Loh. Ohs. 614; and Ic. ii. 199. 2— Park. 1425.1— Clus. i. 
10. 1— Dod. 840. 1 —Ger. Em. 1484. 1— Trag. 1125. 
(A large handsome tree, with spreading branches, and luxuriant foliage. 
Leaves large, on long petiols, pale beneath. Pedicels of the flowers 
villose. Grev. The extended unngs of the capsules, an inch in length, 
greatly facilitate the dispersion of the seeds. E.) Blossom yellowish green; 
petals so much like the calyx that they might be considered at first sight 
as a cup of ten leaves. 
Sycamore Tree. Greater Maple. (Mock Plane Tree. In Scot¬ 
land, Plane Tree. Welsh: Masarnwydd mwyaf. Gaelic: Plinntrinn. 
E.) Woods, hedges, and near houses. In the sub-alpine regions of 
Cumberland and Westmoreland, it is quite at home, as well as on the 
mountainous sheep-pastures between Rirby-Stephen and Sedburgh. Mr. 
Winch. E.) T. May—June.t 
For such 'tis sweet to think the while, 
When cares and griefs the breast invade, 
Is Friendship’s animating smile 
In sorrow’s dark’ning shade. 
Thus it bursts forth, like thy pale cup 
* Glist’ning amid its dewy tears. 
And bears the sinking spirit up 
Amid its chilling fears. 
But still more animating far, 
If meek Religion’s eye may trace, 
E’en in thy glimmering earth-born star, 
The holier hope of Grace. 
The hope—that as thy beauteous bloom 
Expands to glad the close of day, 
So through the shadows of the tomb 
May break forth Mercy’s ray.” E.) 
* (From acer , sharp, or hard, according to Vossius; the wood being used to form 
javelins. E.) 
T The Sycamore flourishes best in open places and sandy grounds; but will thrive very 
well in richer soil. It grows quick; is easily transplanted } bears cropping, and grass flou¬ 
rishes under its shade. It is said to grow better near the sea than in any other situation, 
and that a plantation of these trees at fifty feet asunder, with three Sea Sallow-thorns be¬ 
tween every two of them, will make a fence sufficient to defend the herbage of the country 
from the spray of the sea. Gent. Mag. 1757, p. 252. The wood is soft, and very white. The 
turners form it into bowls, trenchers, &c. (the use of which is frequently mentioned by both 
ancient and modern poets. E.) If a hole is bored into the body of the tree when the sap 
rises in the spring, it discharges a considerable quantity of sweetish watery liquor, which 
is used in making wines, and, if inspissated, affords a fine white sugar, (though the produce 
is far less abundant than that from the North American Jeer saccharinum , the proper 
Sugar Maple, the art of extracting which was known to the aboriginal tribes; and 
some quantity has been for many years sent to France to be refined. E.) The pollen 
appears globular in the microscope, but, if touched with moisture, these globules burst open 
with four valves which assume the form of a cross. Scarabeeus Melontha feeds upon 
the leaves. Linn. (“The seed of the Sycamore affords a pleasing instance of the care that 
