SYCAMORE-MAPLE.

77

which are familiar to us in every stage of growth. In the winged seed of the SYCAMORE may be found a miniature representation of the young plant, with its stems and leaves; near the parent tree we soon see a pair of leaflets spring, and in a few months a fresh shoot rises, and an exquisitely-folded palmate leaf begins to open. A little higher and a little higher marks the progress from year to year, until the stages of childhood and youth are past, and the fine forest tree has attained maturity, and stands in the full dignity of blossoms and fruit.

"Then he spoke to those wood-dwellers,

'Ye are like to men,

And I learn a lesson from ye

With my spirit's ken:

Like to us in low beginnings,
Children of the patient earth,
Born like us to rise on high,

Ever nearer to the sky,

The Latin name for this family, Acer, means sharp, because in olden times sharp instruments of war were made of Sycamore wood. In the present day it is principally employed in making platters, bowls, and musical instruments. This tree lives to a great age. There is a Sycamore in the county of Edinburgh known to have been planted there before the Reformation. The Egyptians held the Sycamore in high estimation, and in them they were chastised. "He smote their Vines with hail, and their Sycamore trees with frost." The trees of this family have blossoms with five sepals, five petals, and eight stamens.

"I love the shady Sycamore,

With its leaves so large and round,
That lie in dull November hours
Thick-spotted on the ground."

The Maple is a low-growing tree, seldom rising much above the hedgerow; its leaves are smaller than those of the Syca

78

ACERACEÆ-GERANIACEÆ.

more, and its flower-cluster is erect, not pendant as in that species. In both the winged seeds hang in graceful groups, and receive tints of crimson from the summer sun. The bark is very deeply furrowed, and the Kentish farmers value it on this account for Hop-poles, the rough surface affording warmth to the young Hop vines. The wood of the Maple is very beautiful when polished. Pliny relates that the luxurious Romans would give immense sums for tables made of this wood, and that when these gay lords reproached their ladies with the extravagance of their dress and jewellery, the fair ones retorted by inquiring the price of the Maple tables. There is a somewhat sugary quality in our Maple (Acer campéstre, Plate IV., fig. 2), but it exists in a very slight degree. But in America there is a species called the Sugar Maple, which notable housekeepers tap annually, and from the sap manufacture sugar enough for their domestic needs. The seed-lobes of another species are cooked by the Tartars as an article of food, but it is no great compliment to any seed to be eaten in a district where vegetation is so scanty.

The HORSE CHESTNUT family is nearly allied to that of the Maples, and should surely now be admitted among British trees. It is a native of Asia, and is spoken of by Gerarde as a rare foreign tree. Mr. Johns states that in some places it is called "the Giant's Nosegay;" and when I have looked upon a Horse Chestnut covered with its magnificent clusters of pink and white flowers, I have been struck with the suitability of this popular name. The fruit is too bitter to be pleasant for food, but the Swiss make good use of it for fattening cattle.

The GERANIUM or CRANESBILL order is the next in our British arrangement. These plants have five sepals, five petals, ovary in five divisions, five styles, and ten stamens in the brotherhood. Our wild Geraniums are all mere herbaceous plants; but the Pelargoniums, as the greenhouse Geraniums are now called, attain to the dignity of shrubs. The long beak to the seed procures for them the English name of Cranebills. The Bloody Cranesbill (Geránium sanguíneum) is a rare and

handsome species, with a deep crimson flower, and half-prostrate stem. I first found it in Switzerland, where I gathered it from rocks overhanging the Lake of Thun; but it grows freely near Whitby. I had afterwards the pleasure of finding it in Cornwall. Driving from Helston to the Lizard Point, when the tide was low, we stopped at Kynance, sent the carriage on, and proceeded on foot along the cliffs. Kynance Cove was looking extremely lovely; its distorted rocks of serpentine, deeply tinged with crimson, maroon, and green, stood out boldly from the pearly sands. The rich dark tints of these rocks give a very peculiar character to the landscape, while they furnish a congenial habitat to many plants rare elsewhere. The Bloody Cranesbill is one of these, and grows in luxuriance on the cliffs for some distance beyond Kynance, and the English Scurvy Grass grows in damp places in the same vicinity.

The Least Cranesbill (G. pusíllum) I got near the Land's End, at the edge of the road leading to the hotel. miniature of the Dove's-foot Cranesbill.

It is like a

The Dove's-foot (G. mólle) has round leaves, rather notched than lobed and very downy, and small purple flowers. The whole plant has a musky odour; it is very common on the margin of fields and lanes.

The Herb Robert (G. Robertiánum) is always welcome, appearing, as it does, among our early spring flowers, and plentifully adorning the hedgebank with its rose-coloured flowers and crimson-tinted leaves during most part of the summer. Its strong aromatic perfume is generally considered an additional recommendation.

The Long-stalked Cranesbill (G. columbínum) I found in Wiltshire, in a lane between Longbridge Deverill and Horningsham, and I have also found it frequently near Abergavenny, in Monmouthshire; it is taller, its lilac flowers are larger, and it is a more slender plant than the rest. But its greatest peculiarity is an elastic power in the seed-pod, which enables it to throw the seed out with force. This elastic carpel contracts in dry weather and expands in wet; the seed is very beautiful, as

well as very curious, each carpel bends outwards, and contracts again above-they thus form five open loops. I found both flowers and fruit upon the plant in August.

The Jagged-leaved Cranesbill (G. disséctum) grows very luxuriantly in stubble fields in the same neighbourhood. It is a common wayside plant; its leaves cut nearly to the middle, and its purple flowers distinguish it from the other small species.

The Larger Dove's-foot (G. pyrenáicum) is a handsome plant, the bloom twice the size of the Slender-stalked species, and the lobed leaves are kidney-shaped. My specimen was sent me from the Isle of Wight, and at the same time I received a piece of the Round-leaved Cranesbill, the carpels of which are curved in the way I have before described.

The Shining Cranesbill (G. lucídum, Plate IV., fig. 3) is a pretty ornament of stony places; its round, lobed leaves are thick and glossy, and very often edged with scarlet; its flowers are bright pink. It grows abundantly about Richmond, in Yorkshire.

The Dusky Cranesbill (G. phæum) is one of the most scarce of the family; it grows under Fremington Edge, near Reeth. The petals are a brown crimson shading almost to black, but white towards the point, so as to give the flower the appearance of having a white eye. It reaches the height of a foot, and is pretty often to be found in old-fashioned gardens.

The Wood Cranesbill (G. sylvaticum) is a frequent ornament of the woods and hilly meadows in the neighbourhood of Richmond. Its flowers are large and of a crimson purple.

On leaving the hilly districts and descending to the flatter country, the Meadow Cranesbill (G. praténse, Plate IV., fig. 4), with its large intensely blue flowers, takes the place of the more alpine species. It is surpassed by none of them in beauty, and is a very great favourite with all flower-lovers.

Only one species of this large family is now wanting, and that was supplied to me by the very clever and obliging Curator of the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh. It has a crimson flower not unlike that of the Wood Cranesbill, and