five-lobed, unequally toothed. Flowers, greenish-yellow, May and June. Samaras large, wings diverging. Native of Mid-Europe and Western Asia.
The False Sycamore or Norway Maple (A. platanoides) is the species shown in our figure. It is a native of Europe, introduced to England in 1683. It is a considerable-sized tree, attaining a height of about sixty feet. Its leaves are heart-shaped in outline, five-lobed, sharply pointed, with a few large sharp teeth. The flowers appear in April and May; bright yellow. The samaras are brown, the wings widely diverging.
Acer is the old Roman name for the Maple.
The False Acacia (Robina pseudacacia).
The False Acacia, Common Acacia, Robinia, or Locust-tree,
as it is variously styled, is a native of mountain forests in North
America, attaining its greatest perfection in Kentucky and
Tennessee, where it attains the height of ninety feet and a
diameter of four feet. It has been grown in this country for
two hundred and fifty years, it being one of the earliest trees
introduced from the New World, its graceful habit and light
pinnate leaves commending it as an ornamental tree for the
plantation. In the United States it is in great repute as an
ornament, a shade or a timber-tree; it grows with great
rapidity, and its timber is of great durability, so that our
cousins use it largely for ship-building, railway sleepers, and
fences. When William Cobbett visited the States he was
greatly struck with the useful nature of this tree, and on his
return to England spared no pains to make its virtues known
to his countrymen, even starting a nursery for the purpose of
supplying the young trees, and creating quite a rage for Locust-planting for several years.
The leaves are long, compound, the leaflets being arranged in a pinnate manner, with an odd leaflet. The stipules are in the form of prickles at the base of the leaf-stalk. It is a
