autumn ; keys, ¾ inch long, erect, convergent; carpels glabrous; wings brownish or reddish.
The Montpellier maple in the wild state varies in the amount of pubescence on the leaf, the apex of which may be sharp or rounded; and the margin, usually entire, is occasionally toothed. The keys of the fruit are occasionally so convergent as to cross each other in their upper part (var. rumelicum, Grisb.).
A hybrid between this species and A. Opalus, known as A. Peronai, von Schwerin,’ has been found in the Apennines at Vallombrosa. Another hybrid, A. rotunadilobum, von Schwerin,’ occurs between this species and A. Opalus, var. obtusatum, and is mentioned in the synopsis, p. 634.
The Montpellier maple is widely spread throughout Southern Europe, from Portugal to Turkey. It occurs also in the mountainous regions of Algeria and Morocco, and extends eastwards through Asia Minor to the Caucasus,’ where it grows at elevations between 3000 and 5000 feet, and to Turkestan. In France, it is common in the south in dry, rocky situations; and ascends on the west as far north as Poitiers and Niort, and on the east to Gap, Lyons, Grenoble, and Chambery; and, according to Christ,’ grows at two spots near Bugey, in the southern Jura. It is found in Germany in the mountains of Rhineland, as far north as Coblenz and in the valleys of the Moselle and Nahe rivers; and also grows at Wiirzburg in Bavaria. In Switzerland, it is wild near Geneva, in the Jura, at Fort de l’Ecluse.’? In Austria, its northern limit extends from the Southern Tyrol, through Carinthia, Carniola, Istria, and Croatia to Banat; and the tree is spread southward through the Balkan peninsula to Greece.
This species has been found® in the fossil state in England, in interglacial deposits at Stone, Hants, and Selsey, Sussex.
It was introduced into England, according to Loudon, in 1739, and in the southern counties thrives very well, ripening its fruit perfectly, and attaining a larger size than any wild trees recorded in Southern Europe.
There are two fine trees in Ricksmansworth Park, Herts, growing in a good loamy soil overlying chalk, which, in 1904, measured 50 feet in height by 8 feet 3 inches (Plate 190) and 45 feet by 8 feet 1inch. There are two good specimens in the grounds behind the Herbarium at Kew, which were covered with flowers on April 1, 1907. These are about 45 feet high, and girth respectively 5 feet 10 inches and 5 feet. There are also trees of a considerable size at Oxford, Fulham Palace, and Bicton. At Ewelme Rectory, Wallingford, there is a wide-spreading tree, which the Rev. Canon Cruttwell informs us is 36 feet high, and g feet in girth near the base. At Arley Castle, near Bewdley, there is a tree 35 feet high, by 6 feet g inches in girth at one foot from the ground, above which it divides into two limbs.
In the Edinburgh Botanic Garden a tree measures 34 feet by 4 feet 2 inches.
In the Jardin des Plantes at Paris there is a fine specimen, which I measured
1 Mitt. D. D. Gesell, 1901, p. 59.
2 Ibid, 1894, p. 50.
3 Radde, Pflanzenverb. Kaukasusländ. 184 (1899).
4 Christ, Flore de la Suisse, Suppl. 64, 65 (1907).
5 Christ, op. cit, 466.
6 Reid, Origin Brit. Flora, 113 (1899).
