ACER, the botanical name for the different species of Maple trees.
The Accr ()Mangum, or oval-leaved maple, is an evergreen tree, of rapid growth, native of the northern parts of India.
The Acer Icerigatum, or polished maple, is found in the woods of the higher mountains of Nepaul; its timber is used by the inhabi tants of Nepaul for rafters, beams, and similar building purposes.
The Acer Tartaricum, or Tartarian maple, is an ornamental tree, or rather large bush. From its keys, deprived of their wings, the Calmucks form, by the aid of boiling water, an astringent beverage, which, mixed with an abundance of milk and butter, forms a favou rite article of their diet.. The wood is hard and white, mixed with brownish veins.
The Acer striatum, or stripedhark maple, is a native of North America. Its wood is very white, and is used by the North Americans for inlaying cabinet-work; its shoots afford food to various animals, especially to the moose deer, in winter and spring, whence it has ac quired the name of moose-wood.
The Accr obtusatum, the Neapolitan maple, is a fine tree, which grows to a height of about 40 feet.
The Acer campestre, the common maple, is spread over the greater part of Europe. In England this is either a bush or a small tree, of inelegant appearance ; and its wood is of little value, except for the use of the turner, who makes it into cups, bowls, &c. In the southern region of Caucasus, we are told by Pallas that it becomes a tree of handsome aspect, with a trunk as thick as a man's body, and that its wood is so hard as to be in request for the manufacture of musket-stocks.
The Ace). pseudo-pkitanus, the sycamore maple, flourishes in middle and southern Eu 1 rope. Although the wood of this species is not particularly valuable, being chiefly used for coarse work, where lightness and toughness are required, yet there is scarcely any more universally cultivated for the sake of the strik ing effect it produces, whether as a single tree, or planted in avenues, or in masses.
The Accr Platanades, the Norway maple, is a fine tree, of North and Central Europe. Its wood is valued for turners' work; from its ascending sap a kind of coarse sugar has been procured.
The Acer or sugar maple, grows abundantly in North America. In the autumn the woods of those countries are dyed of a crimson hue by the changing leaves of the sugar maple. The wood is hard, and has a satiny lustre, but it is readily attacked by in sects, and is not of much value, except when its grain is accidentally waved, and then it is in request for the cabinet-makers. The sac• charine matter contained in its ascending sap is the principal cause of this species being in so much request. From this sap, obtained by tapping the trunk in the spring, during the space of six weeks, a very considerable quan tity of a fine brown sugar is procured; as much, it is said, as 331b. per tree. The sugar maple does not generally succeed very well in England, where it is rarely seen, and where, even when in health, it is not more than 15 or 16 feet high.