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Acer
657

3. Var. heterophyllum, Nicholson.[1] Leaves asymmetrical and irregularly cut.

4. Var. Schwedleri, Koch.[2] A tree, vigorous in growth, with large leaves, bright-red when young, changing to dark-green. A valuable ornamental tree.

5. Var. Reitenbachii, Nicholson.1 Leaves pale-red when unfolding, turning a dark blood-red in late summer. This variety originated in Reitenbach's nursery at Plicken in Prussia, and was sent out by Van Houtte. It comes fairly true from seed, and grows at Colesborne as fast as the type.

6. Var. rubrum, Herder.[3] Leaves green when young, but towards autumn assuming a fine red colour. This variety is cultivated in the Imperial Park at St. Petersburg, and in gardens and parks in Germany.

7. Var. albo-variegatum. Leaves irregularly blotched with white. In a form[4] sent out by Messrs. Drummond of Stirling, the leaves are green in the centre, with a very deep edging of white. In var. macu/atum the leaves are spotted with white, and are very pretty.

8. Var. aureo-marginatum.[5] Leaves with a yellow margin.

9. Var. cucullatum. Leaves irregularly and shortly lobed, crimpled, dark-green.

10. Var. columnare. Of erect columnar habit, with small leaves. Raised? by Simon Louis at Metz in 1855 and first sent out in 1879.

11, Var. globosum. With a dense, compact, rounded head of foliage.

12. Acer Dieckii, Pax, a supposed hybrid between this species and A. pictum, var. colchicum, has been described above in the Synopsis, No. 36, p. 637.

Distribution

The Norway maple has a wide distribution, as it inhabits the greater part of Europe, and extends eastwards into the Caucasus and North Persia.

In Norway, where it is called Lon (in Swedish Lönn), it is indigenous, according to Schübeler, from the extreme south to Romsdal on the west coast and Elvedal in Osterdal, but has been planted and exists as a shrub as far north as Tromsé, lat. 69° 40'; and in Sweden it is met with growing wild as far north as lat. 63° 10' on the east coast. Elwes has never seen any large trees in Norway; but Schübeler figures one (his fig. 129) at Triset in Laurdal, which was 60 feet high by 9 feet 8 inches in girth, and had very much the appearance of a sycamore. He mentions a tree at Lid at 1000 feet elevation which was 120 years old; and says that the largest known to him were at Drobak on the Christiania fjord, 60 feet high by 14 feet in girth, and at Mollendorf near Drammen, a tree which was called the great Lon, and was 70 feet high by 11 feet in girth. In former times the peasants used to tap this maple, and make a sort of beer with the sap; and Loudon states that in Germany the sap has been found to contain more saccharine matter than that of the sugar maple.

  1. Gard. Chron. xv. 564 (1881).
  2. Dendrologie, i. §30 (1869). Koch could throw no light on the name of this variety, the origin of which is unknown.
  3. Gartenflora, 163, t. 545 (1867).
  4. Gard. Chron. xxxiv. 24 (1903).
  5. Var. aureo-variegatum, a form in which the leaves are mottled green and white, is described in Gard. Chron. xiv. 241 (1880).