Many varieties of _A. palmatum_, generally known as _polymorphum_, with variously laciniated and more or less coloured foliage, have been introduced from Japan as ornamental shrubs. 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 varietal names, _ampelopsifolium_, _atropurpureum_, _dissectum_, &c. They are remarkable for the coppery purple tint that pervades the leaves and young growths of some of the varieties. Other Japanese species are _A. japonicum_, the varieties of which are among the most handsome of small deciduous shrubs; _A. rufinerve_, with the habit of the sycamore; _A. distylum_, bearing leaves without lobes; _A. diabolicum_, with large plane-like leaves; and _A. carpinifolium_, with foliage resembling that of the hornbeam. _A. saccharinum_, a North American species, the sugar, rock, or bird's-eye maple, was introduced in 1735. It sometimes attains to 70 or even over 100 ft., more commonly 50 to 60 ft. 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. rubrum_), 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 forms excellent fuel and charcoal, while the ashes are rich in alkaline principles, furnishing a large proportion of the potash exported from Boston and New York. Sugar is principally extracted from this species, the sap being boiled and the syrup when reduced to a proper consistence runs 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.