At Casewick, Lincolnshire, the seat of Lord Kesteven, a maple measured, in 1907, 53 feet high by 9 feet 1 inch in girth, with a bole of 9 feet. At Arley Castle, near Bewdley, a slender tree measured, in 1906, 66 feet high by 4 feet 8 inches in girth. At Colesborne, just below the church, there is one about 60 feet high by 9 feet in girth ; and this is the largest that I know in Gloucestershire.
None of the trees recorded by Loudon approach those mentioned above in size, and though the tree is so hardy in the south of England, it usually does not attain a considerable size in the north. I have myself seen no specimens in Scot- land worth recording ; and it is not mentioned either in the Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland or in Hunter’s Woods and Forests of Perthshire. Loudon records a tree at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, 46 feet high, and another at Blairlogie in Stirlingshire, said to have been 302 years old and no less than 55 feet high by 4 feet in diameter. The Hon. Vicary Gibbs, however, measured in 1905 a pollarded tree at Armadale Castle, in the Isle of Skye, 42 feet high by 7½ feet in girth at 24 feet from the ground. Mr. Renwick also reports a large one at Ardgowan, Renfrewshire, which was, in 1904, 12 feet 2 inches in girth at 1 foot up, and another at Auchentorlie, Dumbartonshire, which was, in 1907, 41 feet high by 9 feet 5 inches in girth at 3 feet from the ground. Henry measured in 1905 a tree in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, 54 feet high by 6 feet 2 inches in girth, dividing into two stems at 8 feet from the ground.
The common maple is often planted in Ireland; but Henry has seen no trees of great size. It thrives well at Castlewellan, where there is a young tree about 30 feet in height.
Timber
Though the wood is one of the best of its class, on account of its fine grain, close texture and hardness, and though it sometimes shows a most beautiful figure, which when polished is highly ornamental, this wood, formerly much sought after for turning, inlaying, and cabinetmaking, is now hardly known in commerce, and is not mentioned by most recent writers. Stevenson,’ however, says that waved or mottled specimens when cut into veneer are little, if anything, inferior to American bird’s-eye maple.
The so-called mazer bowls which in ancient times were carried by every pilgrim to drink from, just as they now are by the Tibetans,’ were turned from the roots and burrs of the common maple, and when mounted in silver the few remaining specimens of these bowls are very highly valued by collectors. The colour of the wood is normally white, but in old trees it turns to a pinkish or brown colour, and so far as my experience goes it is a wood which shrinks and warps very little. For parquet flooring it would be admirable, and might be very well used for table legs. In English Timber and its Economical Conversion it is said to be subject to the attacks of worms, but I do not know whether this statement is based on experience. (H.J.E.)
1 Trees of Commerce, p. 112.
2 Cf. p. 662, note 3.
