476 
OCTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Acer. 
Hunt. Evel. at p. 190; i. p. 183. Ed. ii.— E. Bot. 304— Tourn. 386. 1— 
Sped, de la Nat. ii. 29. 2. at p. 290. and Nat. Delin. ii. 19. 2. at p. 312— 
Hod. 840. 2 —Ger. Em. 1484. 2— J. B. i. 2. 166— Trag. 1123—Lon. i. 
36. 1. 
(Much smaller than the preceding: leaves not more than one and a half 
inch wide, downy when young, (as are the racemes,) sometimes nearly 
entire. Caps, downy, with oblong, reddish wings. E.) Bark angular, 
cork-like. Seldom ripens its fruit in Sweden. Linn. Blossoms terminal ,* 
pale green. 
Common Maple. (Welsh: Masarnwydd lleiaf. Cynhowlen, N.W. Gwen- 
wialen. S.W. E.) Hedges and thickets. T. June.* 
* (Maple was formerly the principal wood for all kinds of cabinet work, and, according 
to Evelyn, the knobs of antient trees affording beautiful and richly variegated specimens 
were collected by the curious at high prices.—When beautifully veined or spotted, it was 
much prized by the Romans, and of such were composed the celebrated Tigrin and Pan- 
therine tables ; of which some particular specimens, as those of Cicero, Asinius Gallus, King 
Juba, and the Mauritanian Ptolemy, are said to have been worth nearly their weight in 
gold. But in modern times it has been in a great degree superseded by mahogany. At 
that remote era it was deemed a suitable material for purposes of state, and thus Virgil. 
“ A Maple throne rais’d higher from the ground 
Receiv’d the Trojan chief.” 
Pliny eulogizes the knobs and excrescences, the brusca and mollusca, of this tree, which 
often represented in their natural contortions, birds, beasts, &c. as does Ovid the clouded 
or mottled Maple. When allowed to grow to timber, it makes excellent gun-stocks, and 
screws for cyder presses. The Maple, though in our time rarely permitted to rise higher 
than brushwood, has been known to exist more than two centuries : at Knowle, in Kent, the 
Duke of Dorset’s seat, one measures twelve to fourteen feet in growth. E.) The wood is 
much used for turning in the lathe, and vessels may be thus produced so thin as to transmit 
light. (Both species are subject to the minute fungus Erineum acerinum , Purt. t. 36, in broad 
patches on the under side of the leaves, filaments crowded, pale, changing to reddish brown : 
also to black blotches ; vid. Mucor granulosus. With. The foliage assumes a remarkably 
rich and mellow autumnal tint, of the successive variation of which an elaborate description 
may be found in Journ.Nat.; where also it is remarked that Maple is useful in hedges, not 
from the opposition it affords, but by reason of its very quick growth from the stole after it 
has been cut, whence it makes a fence in a shorter time than most of its companions; and 
when fire-wood is an object, it soon becomes sufficiently large for that purpose. The 
leaves often, in summer, exhibit a white mouldy aspect, which appears to be a mere 
exudation. The younger foliage, in spring, is beset with numerous red-coloured spiculae, 
conjectured by the above writer to be occasioned by the puncture of some insect, probably 
for the formation of a nidus for its young.—Pliny recommends a cataplasm made from the 
roots to be applied in hepatic affections ; but modern practice takes no notice of it. A thin 
slice of the singularly rugged young shoot cut through horizontally, presents a beautiful 
and curious object in the microscope, (Journ. Nat. PI. iv. f. 1.) exhibiting the different 
channels, and variously formed tubes, through which the sap flows and the air circulates 
for the supply of all the diversified requirements of the plant; and “ it is good and de¬ 
lightful,” adds the author of the same work, “ to contemplate the wonderful me¬ 
chanism that has been devised by the Almighty Architect, for the sustenance and particu¬ 
lar necessities of the simple Maple: which naturally leads one to consider that, if He have 
so regarded such humble objects, how much more has He accounted worthy of his benefi¬ 
cence the more highly destined orders of His creation !” 
To the admirers of the picturesque, to the lovers of human nature imbued with its most 
amiable attributes, the Maple has acquired additional interest, since beneath its shade, in 
Boldre church-yard, are deposited the remains of the pious Gilpin. There rests from his 
useful labours the exemplary parish priest, and the able illustrator of the circumjacent 
