Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/552

Rh 524 M A E M A E Austrian. It occurs in northern Europe, the Caucasus, and northern Asia. The wood is excellent fuel, and makes the best vharcoal. It is compact, of a fine grain, sometimes beautifully veined, and takes a high polish. Hence it lias been celebrated from antiquity for tables, &c. The wood of the roots is frequently knotted, and valuable for small objects of cabinet work. The young shoots, being flexible ami tough, are employed in France as whips. A. pscudo-Platanus, L., the sycamore, or great maple, is a handsome tree of quick growth, with a smooth bark. The leaves are large, with finely acute and serrated lobes, affording abundant shade. Its longevity is from one hundred and forty to two hundred years. It is found in variouk parts of Europe in wooded mountainous situations. The wood when young is white, but old heart-wood is yellow or brownish. Like the common maple it is hard and takes a high polish. It is much prized by wheel vriglits, cabinetmakers, sculptors, &c., on the Continent, while knotted roots are used for in laying. Sugar has been obtained from the sap of this as from other species, the most being one ounce from a quart of sap. The latter has also been made into wine in the Highlands of Scotland. There are many varieties, the variegated and cut-leaved being the most notice able (see Gard. Chron., 1881, p. 229). For remarkable variations in the number of cotyledons arising from fusion, see a paper by the late Prof. J. S. Hcnslow in May. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 346. A. 1 latanoidcs, L., the Norway maple (Louden, I.e. , p. 408; Gard. L hroti., 1881, p. 564), is met with from Norway to Italy, Greece, central and south Russia. It was introduced into Britain in 1683. It is a lofty tree (from 40 to 70 feet), resembling the sycamore, but with yellow flowers, and more spreading wings to the fruit. There are several varieties. The wood is used for the same purposes as that of the sycamore. Sugar has been made from the sap in Norway and Sweden. The leaves of this species, in common with those of the sycamore especially, and perhaps all others, are liable to produce honeydew, which appears to be extravasated cell-sap. The present writer suggests that the starch formed in the leaves may be rapidly converted into sugar, which is then condensed on the surface of the leaf under excessive transpiration. Asiatic Species. Thirteen species are described by Hiern, chiefly in the temperate Himalayas (Flor. of Brit. India, p. 692 ; see also Hrandis, For. FL, 110). The wood of some species is used, as that of A. Isevigatum, Wall., for building ; that of A. csesium, Wall. , being soft, inferior drinking cups are made of it ; while that of A. pictam, Thunb., is white, light, and fine-grained. Japanese Species. Species, and many varieties, especially of A. palmatum, Thunb., generally known a&polymorphum, with variously laciniated and more or less coloured foliage, have lately been intro duced as ornamental shrubs. The original species was introduced in 1832. The branches and corolla are purple, the fruit woolly. The foliage of the typical form is bright green with very pointed lobes. It occurs in the central mountains of Nippon and near Nagasaki. Beautiful varieties have been introduced under the names A. P. ampelopsifolium, atropurpureum, dissectum, &c. They are remarkable for the coppery purple tint that pervades the leaves and young growths of some of the varieties (for figs., see Catalogue of Hardy Trees, &c., by Messrs Veitch). Of other Japanese species, A. niftncrve, Sieb. and Zucc., with the habit of the sycamore, from Nippon ; A. distylum, Sieb. and Zucc., bearing leaves without lobes ; A. diabolicum, Bl., with large plane-like leaves, from Nippon ; and A. carp in i folium, Sieb. and Zucc., with foliage resembling that of the hornbeams, are especially worthy of note. Xorth American Species. A. saccluirinum, L., the sugar, rock, or bird s-eye maple, was introduced in 1735. It sometimes attains to 70 or even over 100 feet, more commonly 50 to 60 feet. It is remarkable for the whiteness of the bark. The wood is white, but acquires a rosy tinge after exposure to light. The grain is fine and close, and when polished has a silky lustre. The timber is used instead of oak where the latter is scarce, and is employed for axle- trees and spokes, as well as for Windsor chairs, &c. It exhibits two accidental forms in the arrangement of the fibres, an undulated one like those of the curled maple (A. rubnim), and one of spots which gives the name bird s-eye to the wood of this species. Like the curled maple, it is used for inlaying mahogany. It is much prized for bedsteads, writing desks, shoe lasts, &c. The wood forma excellent fuel and charcoal, while the ashes are rich in alkaline principles, furnishing a Inrge proportion of the potash exported from Boston and New York. Sugar is principally ex tracted from this species, the sap being boiled and the syrup when reduced to a proper consistence run into moulds to form cakes. Trees growing in low and moist situations afford the most .sap but least sugar. A cold north-west wind, with frosty nights and sunny days in alternation, tends to incite the flow, which is more abundant during the day than the night. A thawing night is said to promote the flow, and it ceases during a south-west wind and at the approach of a storm ; and so sensitive are the trees to aspect and climatic variations that the flow of sap on the south and east side has been noticed to be earlier than on the north and west side of the same tree. The average quantity of sap per tree is from 12 to 24 gallons in a season. For full details of the preparation, &c., see London, I.e., p. 413 ; and Gard. Chron. 1878, p. 137. A. rubnun, L., the red-flowering or scarlet maple, is a middle- sized tree, and was introduced in 1656. It is the first tree to blossom in spring in North America. The wood, like that of other speck s, is applicable to many purposes, as for the seats of Windsor chairs, turnery, &c. The grain in very old trees is sometimes undulated, which suggested the name of curled maple, and gives beautiful effects of light and shade on polished surfaces. The most constant use of curled maple is for the stocks of fowling pieces and rifles, as it affords toughness and strength combined with lightness and elegance. The inner bark is dusky red. On boiling, it yields a purple colour which with sulphate of iron affords a black dye. The wood is inferior to that of the preceding species in strength and as fuel. Sugar was made from the sap by the French Canadians, but the production is only half as great as that from the sugar maple (Michaux). In Britain it is cultivated as an orna mental tree, as being conspicuous for its flowers in spring, and for its red fruit and foliage in autumn. A. macrophylhim, Purscri., furnishes material for hats, baskets, mats, &c., from its inner bark, and the sap gives sugar. A. circinatu/n, Pursch., of California, has a fine, white, tough wood, which takes a good polish. For description of other species of North America, sec Gard. Chron., 1881, index. Gray s Manual of Hut., p. 84. ((}. Jl.) MAR, EARLDOM OF. Mar, one of the ancient divisions or provinces of Scotland, comprised the larger portion of Aberdeenshire, extending from north of the Don southwards to the Mounth. It is remarkable for its association with the oldest historical dignity of Scotland, or perhaps of any country, which has been perpetuated to our own time. Donald MacEnun MacCainech, mormaer (hereditary ruler or steward) of Mar, fought, according to nearly contem porary testimony, at the battle of Clontarf in Ireland in 1014. Under Anglo-Saxon influences rnorrnaers or great stewards became earls ; and Ruadri, mormaer of Mar, whose name appears in the Book of Deer, is designed &quot; Rothri comes&quot; in a charter of Alexander I. of 1114 or 1115. His representative in the latter part of the 12th century was Gratney, earl of Mar, who married Christian Bruce, sister of King Robert, a lady famed for her defence of the chief stronghold of the earldom, Kildrummy Castle, against David of Strathbogie, earl of Athole, then (1335) in alliance with the English. Their son, Earl Donald, in his youth a captive in England, was restored to his country after Bannockburn. On the landing of Edward Balliol in 1332, and death of Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, he w T as in vested with the regency, and the troops hastily assembled by him to meet the invader suffered a disastrous defeat at Dupplin, the earl of Mar being himself among the slain. Earl Thomas, the regent s son, dying without issue in 1377, his successor was his sister Margaret, countess of Douglas by marriage. From her the earldom of Mar passed to her daughter, Isabel Douglas, countess of Mar, whose second marriage forms a notable episode in Scottish history. Alex ander Stewart, natural son of Alexander, earl of Buchan, and, according to common belief, the instigator of a murderous attack on that lady s first husband, stormed the widowed countess of Mar in Kildrummy Castle in 1404, compelled her to marry him, and extorted from her a charter which, had the king been prevailed on to confirm it, would have made over the earldom to him and his heirs, in exclusion of the heirs of his wife. But, weak as was the law north of the Mounth in the reign of Robert III., this outrage was too flagrant to be condoned. The indis pensable confirmation was refused by the king ; but a compromise was effected, by which Isabel voluntarily accepted Stewart as her husband, and, by a charter which Robert duly confirmed, gave him a right to the earldom for life, with remainder, however, to her own heirs. Qua earl of Mar, the quondam leader of freebooters became a sup porter of law and order ; and in 1411, when Donald, lord of the Isles, was leading his marauding host southwards, it was under Alexander, earl of Mar, that the lowland gentry and the burghers of Aberdeen mustered to oppose
 * .c. &quot; Acer &quot;; Sargent s Cat. of For. Trees of y. Anier.; Loudi n, l.c, p. 40;&amp;gt; .&amp;lt;;.;