ACER

(Celt, ac, a point; Lat. acer, sharp. Pikes were made from the wood.) A genus of hardy trees, comprehending the common maple, the sycamore, and various kinds of American maples. Their wood is not of much value, being usually light and perishable; but the knotted parts of Acer campestre furnish the pretty bird's-eye maple of cabinet makers. The sap of Acer saccharinum is so sweet that sugar, of good quality, is prepared from it in North America. Acer plat a no ides, the Norway maple, is one of the best trees for planting in places exposed to the sea air. ACERACETE (see Acer), or ACERINEiE. A small natural order of polypetalous exogenous plants, comprehending the genus acer, and three others. It consists of 9 ACHROMATISM. trees, or at least of woody plants, inhabiting the temperate parts of the world; their most e ential character consists in their samaroid dicarpellary fruit, connected with a broken whorled calyx, and unsymmetrical flowers without scales at the base of the petals. The uses of the order are the same as those of acer. ACERANS, Accra. (Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) A name applied to a family of apterous insects, characterised by the absence of antennae: and to a family of gastropodous moUusks, including those species which have no tentacles. [s. 22]