handsome bark with purple and green streaks, smoother than that of the stock. At Park Place, Henley, there is a tree 51 feet high, and 4½ feet in girth at 4 feet from the ground, dividing above this into several stems. The bark is smooth and grey, and close to the trunk are several suckers about 4 feet high. (A.H.)
ACER OPALUS, Italian Maple
- Acer Opalus, Miller, Dict. ed. 8, No. 8 (1768); Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 436 (1789); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 420 (1838).
- Acer italum, Lauth, De Acere, 32 (1781); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 762 (1887).
- Acer opulifolium, Villar, Hist. Pl. Dauph. i. 333 (1786); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 421 (1838); Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 40 (1897).
- Acer rotundifolium, Lamarck, Encycl. iii. 382 (1789).
A tree attaining about 50 feet in height, often met with in the wild state as a mere shrub. Bark smooth and grey on young trees, fissured and darker in colour on old trees. Young branchlets glabrous, becoming dark red in their first autumn. Leaves (Plate 206, Fig. 14), variable in size and shape, usually about 24 inches long by 3 inches wide, cordate at the base, five-lobed; lobes short, ovatetriangular, acute at the apex, irregularly toothed; sinuses shallow, usually rounded at the base; upper surface dark green, shining; lower surface dull, pale, with scattered pubescence, denser on the nerves and forming axil-tufts, in some forms glabrescent; petiole without milky sap.
Flowers appearing very early, before the leaves, in sessile corymbs, yellow; pedicels long, glabrous or pubescent. Fruit, ripening in autumn, brown, glabrous; keys about an inch long; wings more or less divergent, only slightly narrowed at the base.
In winter the twigs are shining, glabrous. Buds conical, obtuse at the apex; outer scales about twelve, pubescent and ciliate. Lateral buds shortly stalked, arising from the twigs at an acute angle. Leaf-scars very slender, crescentic, three-dotted, and fringed on their upper margins with white hairs; opposite pairs of leaf-scars often joined around the stem.
Varieties
This species is very variable as regards the foliage. A. hispanicum, Pourret, which grows in Spain, and Acer Martini, Jordan, a rare tree in Savoy and Basses-Alpes in France, are connecting links between A. Opalus and A. hyrcanum.
- 1. Var. obtusatum.
- Acer obtusatum, Kitaibel, in Willdenow, Sp. Pl. iv. 984 (1805); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 420 (1838); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 763 (1887).
Leaves (Plate 206, Fig. 16) larger, 4 inches or more in width, more rounded in outline, more coriaceous, more densely pubescent beneath; lobes short, broad, slightly and crenately toothed; basal lobes very short.
