"bowls," which are used in cotton-dying and washing machines. For this purpose it must be cut early in the winter, in order to preserve the purity of its colour, and removed as soon as possible, for if left standing till the sap begins to rise, which it does early in spring, or left lying exposed to the weather, it is soon depreciated in value. Butts of moderate age, free from branches or knots and over 18 or 20 inches quarter-girth, are worth from 3s. 6d. to 5s. per foot, or even more when near their best market, which is in Lancashire. The measuring of this timber presents a difficulty when, as often happens, the logs are not round or quite straight, as in conversion they have to be turned down to a true cylinder, and in trees grown in the open, as is usually the case, large buttresses and swellings often occur, for which allowance must be made.[1]
Smaller and rougher trees are worth much less than large clean ones, and are converted into planks and smaller rollers, which are used by manufacturers of dairy utensils and mangles, brush-makers, toy-makers, and turners, for bobbins and many small articles. From 1s. to 2s. per foot is a fair price for such timber, but the price varies much, according to the locality. A certain quantity of sycamore is cut into veneers, and when the wood has a wavy grain, like that of the so-called fiddle-backed maple, it is very ornamental, and may be used with good effect for the interiors of cabins, railway carriages, and furniture. What is known in the furniture trade as "hare wood" is, I believe, nothing more than fine wavy sycamore, which by age or staining has taken a pinkish-brown colour. (H.J.E.)
ACER CAMPESTRE, Common Maple
- Acer campestre, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1055 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 428 (1838); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 764 (1887); Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 42 (1897).
A tree, rarely attaining 70 feet in height, usually smaller. Bark, corky on young trees, ultimately becoming fissured and scaly. Young branchlets usually pubescent, in some forms glabrous, and not remaining green throughout the first year. Leaves variable in size, averaging 2½ inches long and 3 inches broad, cordate at the base, five-lobed, the two basal lobes occasionally obsolete; lobes shortly acuminate; margin plainly ciliate, usually with a few coarse obtuse teeth; upper surface darkgreen, pubescent on the nerves; lower surface light-green, with scattered pubescence, dense on the nerves and tufted on the axils. Petiole with milky sap. Plate 207, Figs. 24 and 25, taken from adult trees growing in England, show considerable variation in the shape of the leaves and the amount of pubescence on the branchlets. Fig. 23 represents the foliage of a coppice shoot in a French forest.
Flowers, in corymbs, at first erect, afterwards pendent, opening with or soon after the leaves, green in colour, with pubescent pedicels and sepals; lateral flowers
- ↑ William Low, Esq., of Monifieth, Scotland, informs me that in his neighbourhood there is a large consumption of sycamore for making rollers used in the jute and flax-spinning industry. These are from 7 to 9 inches in diameter, and 1¾ inch thick. They cost about 30s. per gross, and are preferred when made of hard and slowly grown Scotch timber, which is considered to be less liable to crack in drying, when cut in transverse sections.
