Cultivation
This tree was introduced by Sir Charles Wager in 1725, and is still known in some catalogues and gardens as Wager's maple. It was formerly commoner in cultivation than now, and deserves a place in every garden where a suitable situation can be found; being perfectly hardy at least in the southern half of England, and one of the most beautiful-leaved trees we have both in spring and autumn. The seed is difficult to procure, as it ripens so early in the season— though Loudon says it ripens in England, I have never seen any,—and according to Dawson[1] should be sown directly it is ripe, and shaded and watered during the first summer. It is, however, easy to procure young trees by post from America in autumn, and such will I believe make better trees than the grafted ones which are usually sold in Europe.
Dr. Masters[2] says that this is one of the best and most elegant trees for planting in towns; but that he never saw a tree of the kind of such proportions as one on the ramparts at Ypres in Belgium.
Remarkable Trees
The tallest tree of this species I have seen in England is in a shrubbery at Cobham Hall, Kent, where, however, it has been too much crowded to develop its natural habit and beauty. It is about 77 feet by 9 feet, with a clean bole of nearly 30 feet. There are some trees on Ashampstead Common, Berks, of which the largest is about 65 feet by 8 feet.
At Rickmansworth Park, I measured a tree 60 feet by 12 feet which grows on the banks of the stream and spreads to a diameter of 30 paces. At Barton, Suffolk, there is a very spreading tree on a lawn, forked close to the ground, and 68 feet high, with two main stems 9g feet 3 inches and 6 feet 3 inches in girth. At Hampton Court, Herefordshire, there is an old tree in the lower park on rich alluvial soil, which, when measured by Mr. Hogg in 1881, was 65 feet by 11 feet 5 inches. When I saw it in 1905 it had lost its top and was decaying, though it had increased in girth to 12 feet 3 inches. At Woburn, in rich damp soil near a pond, there is a handsome spreading tree, with a short bole, 53 feet high by 9 feet 5 inches; and at Syon a tall slender tree, 58 feet high and only 3 feet 3 inches round, has smooth bark like that of a beech. At Arley Castle there is a fine tree 61 feet by 4 feet which, according to Mr. R. Woodward, was only planted in 1877. Smaller and younger trees are found in many gardens; but in the North and West of England we have seen none worthy of record, and Loudon mentions no trees equal to those above mentioned.
In Scotland, Mr. W. Middleton Campbell has measured a tree at Camis Eskan, near Helensburgh, which is 58 feet by 11 feet 1 inch.
In Ireland, Henry has seen no large silver maples, and one at Glasnevin, 45 feet high by 63 feet in girth, is badly shaped and not thriving.
