at Ealing on May 23, 1882, but never throve, and has been dead for some years. This species is very rare in cultivation. I saw a young tree, about 20 feet high, in 1906, at Grignon in France, where it exceeds the sycamore in rate of growth. (A.H.)
ACER RUBRUM, Red Maple
- Acer rubrum, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1055 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 424 (1838) ; Sargent, Silva N. Amer. ii, 107, tt. 94, 95 (1892), and Trees N. Amer. 639 (1905).
- Acer coccineum, Michaux f., Hist. Arb. Am. ii. 203 (1810).
- Acer sanguineum, Spach. Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, ii. 176 (1834).
A tree attaining in America 120 feet in height and 15 feet in girth; with ascending branches. Bark of young stems smooth and light grey, becoming on old trunks darker, ridged, and separating on the surface into plate-like scales. Young branchlets green or red, slightly pubescent towards the tip. Leaves (Plate 207, Fig. 27) very variable in size, averaging 3 inches long and broad; either five-lobed, with two very small basal lobes, or three-lobed, the middle lobe the longest ; lobes short, triangular, acute or acuminate at the apex; sinuses very shallow, acute at the base ; base of the leaf truncate, slightly cordate or shortly cuneate ; margin non- ciliate, irregularly toothed, or doubly serrate; upper surface dark green, glabrous; lower surface silvery white, scattered pubescent, without axil-tufts; petioles without milky sap. The leaves turn scarlet or orange in autumn.
Flowers appearing early in spring before the leaves, in few-flowered, umbel-like clusters encircling the branchlets of the previous year; dicecious or moncecious ; reddish ; pedicels long ; petals present; ovary glabrous. Fruit hanging on drooping stalks, ripening in June, and germinating as soon as it falls upon the ground; keys glabrous, about an inch long, at first convergent, afterwards divergent, brown or reddish in colour.
The red maple can only be confused with the silver maple, from which it differs in the ascending branches and in the shape of the leaves, which are usually only three-lobed, always have very shallow acute sinuses, and are less cordate (often truncate) at the base than in A. dasycarpum. In winter the twigs are glabrous, reddish ; leaf scars very narrow, three-dotted, opposite pairs not united around the stem. Buds small, shortly stalked, reddish; external scales, six to eight, fringed with whitish cilia; lateral buds arising from the twigs at an angle of 45°.
Varieties
In addition to the typical form, above described, Sargent admits two well- marked varieties, occurring wild in America.
1. Var. Drummondii, Sargent. (Acer Drummondii, Hooker and Arnott, Journ. Bot. i. 200 (1834).) Leaves three-lobed, with short broad lobes, and covered on
