Turning to civilized peoples, it is among the Egyptians that we find the earliest recorded examples of cartographic representation. Apollonius of Rhodes (born 230 b.c. ) reports in his Argonautica (iv. 279) that the Egyptians of Colchis, a colony dating from the time of Ramses II. (?), had preserved as heirlooms certain wooden tablets (κυpβeιs) on which land and sea, roads and highways, were accurately indicated; Eustathius, in his commentary on Dionysius Periegetes, mentions that Sesostris the Egyptian king caused route-maps to be prepared; and Strabo also refers to certain old maps in the library of Eratosthenes in which Meroe and the south end of the peninsula of India were placed on the same parallel of latitude. These statements have been confirmed by the actual discovery of such maps and plans on old Egyptian papyrus-rolls. Birch has, for instance, identified a drawing on a papyrus in the, Turin Museum as the topographical map of a gold-mining district in Nubia. The perspective in this case is very childish: in order to show that the road leads between two mountain-chains, the mountains on one side of the road are inverted (comp. Lepsius, Urkundenbuch, pl. xxii.). This map is one thousand years older than that of Anaximander, who was considered by the Greeks as the inventor of cartography. On another sheet appears a representation of the victorious return of Sethos I. (1443-1392 b.c.) from Asia, showing the road from Pelusium by Leontopolis to Heroopolis, Lake Timsah with fish in it, the canal from the Nile with crocodiles, and at Heroopolis a bridge over the canal. Similar picturemaps were discovered by Layard in Assyria (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 231 sg., 1867). The ancient Babylonians have also the high distinction of having divided space and time in a way that allowed scientific measurements to be made after the still customary method. It was they who originated the division of’the ecliptic into twelve signs and later into 360 degrees; and the division of the circle into 360 degrees with 60 minutes to the degree and 60 seconds to the minute, as well as the corresponding division of the hour, was the outcome of their sexagesimal system of numeration. This method of division was introduced among the Greeks by Hipparchus (150 b.c.), and obtained general currency through the geographer Ptolemy (150 A.D.). By this means were provided the elements necessary for the astronomical determination of geographical position. Among the Egyptians and Babylonians map-making remained in its first infantile stage; its scientific development was received at the hands of the Greeks.

2. Development of Map-making among the Greeks.— In Homer the “circumfluent ocean” represents the horizon which bounds the disk of the world; the scientific treatment of geography and map-making has its origin among the Ionic Greeks of Asia Minor. Anaximander, a pupil of Thales (about 560 b.c.), sketched the first map (γεωγραφικός τrivα⅛), and was the first who sought to determine the compass of the earth (the world-disk) and the sea. As the Greeks gradually extended their journeys as far as India in the East and the Atlantic in the West, the conviction gained ground that the w 0rld-disk could not be bounded by a regular circular outline. About one hundred years after Anaximander, Democritus of Abdera ventured to draw a new map on the basis of his own observations (for in his extensive wanderings he had been as far as Persia and perhaps even India); and in opposition to the circular form of the Ionians he gave the world an oblong shape, and taught that from east to west it was half as long again as from north to south. Although after the time of Aristotle the tabular or flat-surface theory of the figure of the earth was expelled by the spherical or globe theory, the portion of the earth’s surface which was really known retained the same oblong shape which it had with Democritus; and hence we still speak of longitude and latitude, that is, length and breadth. It was on this basis also that the far-travelled Hecataeus of Miletus, who wrote his Γi)ς 7r∈ptbδoς between 520 and 500 b.c., drew up his map; for the representation of the world on a brazen tablet, which was shown by Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus, to King Cleomenes of Sparta, was probably nothing else than the world-map of Hecataeus. Tne first application of astronomy to geography was made by the famous Arctic navigator Pytheas of Marseilles, about 326 b.c.; it is from him that we obtain the first observation of latitude, and, what is of some importance, this is for Marseilles. His voyage to the extreme North (Thule) was undertaken partly for the purpose of satisfying himself in regard to the figure and size of the earth. Dicaearchus of Messana in Sicily, a pupil of Aristotle’s (310 b.c.), made the first approach to a projection. He divided the inhabited (i.e., the known) world, which he reckoned to be one and a half times as long as it was broad, into a northern and a southern half by means of what he considered a straight line drawn from the pillars of Hercules, through Sicily, the Peloponnesus, Caria, Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, and across the Taurus to the Imaus (Himalaya). He thus drew the first parallel of latitude, and upon this basis he prepared maps which were to be publicly exhibited in a hall (Agathem., § 5; Strabo, p. 105). The name διάφραγμα της οικουμένης, i.e., partition of the inhabited world, was given to the base-line. For the next material improvement we are indebted to the famous astronomer and geographer Eratosthenes of Cyrene, the keeper of the Alexandrian library (276-196 b.c.). He was the first to make a rational geodetic measurement for the purpose of determining the size of the earth, and he collected in his Γεωγραφικά the whole geographical learning of his time. This work has unfortunately been lost, but from the numerous fragments that have been preserved, especially by Strabo, it is possible to form an idea of this the first systematic geography. Starting with the spherical form and the size of the world, it gave a description of the οικουμένη, discussed the space relations of the world-island, and estimated its extent in longitude and latitude. On the basis of the diaphragm of Dicaearchus, the course of which was more precisely indicated, a series of seven parallels and as many meridians cutting the diaphragm at right angles were drawn, and by this means the inhabited world was divided to the north and the south of the diaphragm into a certain number of regular divisions to which the name of sphragidia or seals was given. Then follows a description of the countries in the several “seals,” beginning with India. Iu this arrangement we may recognize the first attempt to construct a network or system of degrees. As numerous data in regard to distances were already at his command, Eratosthenes greatly improved on the old maps in the matter of correctness; but, as the number of astronomical determinations of latitude was still small, and the intervals between the parallels and the meridians were unequal and conditioned by the available data in regard to distance, his network of lines was far from being an exact mathematical system. Hipparchus of Nicaea in Bithynia, the greatest astronomer of the ancient world (about 150 b.c.), consequently rejected the geography of Eratosthenes because it only partially utilized the abundant resources provided by the high development of contemporary mathematics and astronomy. Instead of the uncertain estimates of distance and direction furnished by travellers, only astronomical determinations of latitude and longitude should, he maintained, have been employed. He does not appear, however, to have himself written a geography or constructed a map. About the same time Crates of Mallus made the first globe. On this he extended the Atlantic Ocean southward to the south pole, placed a corresponding ocean on the other hemisphere, and, in the belief that the torrid zone could be occupied by nothing but water, ran an Oceanic belt along the line of the equator (fig. 1). In the four segments thus produced he set four semicircular land-areas, only one of which was known to the ancient world. This systematic figure maintained its place down into the Middle Ages, as appears from the ornamentation of the globe that forms part of the insignia of royalty.

Marinus of Tyre (about 150 a.d. ) was the first who •sought to give effect to the demand made by Hipparchus for a trustworthy representation of the countries of the world. His work unfortunately has been lost; and we know of its existence only from his successor Claudius Ptolemy. Without Marinus, however, Ptolemy’s work would have been impossible; and neither of them was able really to carry out Hipparchus’s idea of determining the latitude and longitude for every place; for observations of latitude were known only for Marseilles, Syene, Alexandria, Rhodes, and perhaps a few other places, and all other positions were obtained by reducing distances to degrees. The determination of longitudes was even more difficult. Ptolemy possessed only the contemporary observation of the lunar eclipse in Arbela and Carthage of the year 331 b.c., from which he calculated a difference of meridian of 45° 10' instead of 34° 2'. The longer axis of the Mediterranean was consequently a third too great, 62 degrees of the meridian being assumed instead of 41∣, and from this there resulted an exaggeration of all the Mediterranean countries, which was corrected only by the compass-maps of the later Middle Ages. Ptolemy, however (availing himself of the stereographic projection devised by Hipparchus), corrected an important blunder which Marinus had committed through neglecting to take account of the sphericity of the earth and constructing a rectangular system of degrees. Like Marinus, he counted his meridians from the Canaries (the Fortunate Islands). No maps appear to have been drawn by Ptolemy himself; those to be found in the oldest editions of his work are by Agathodaemon (a mathematician of the 5th (?) century after Christ), though accurately based, it is true, on Ptolemy’s data. The oldest MS. of Ptolemy is that found in the Vatopedi monastery of Mount Athos, and published by Victor Langlois in 1867 along with careful reproductions -of the maps. It dates from the 12th or 13th century. Resides the exaggeration of the Mediterranean, the greatest blunders of Ptolemy are the following :—the European continent between the Black Sea and the Baltic is too narrow; India is not represented as a peninsula; Ceylon (Taprobane) is made much too large; and the Indian Ocean is bounded by lands towards the south (Plate VII.). But in spite of all this the scientific method pursued in the representation was perfectly correct. It was not till the Renaissance that a return was made to the rational treatment of cartography inaugurated by Ptolemy; and he then became the teacher of the modern world.

3. Map-making among the Romans.— The Romans contributed nothing to the development of the scientific method of the Greeks, and did not apply astronomy to the purposes •of cartography. They valued maps according to their practical utility as implements of political administration; and they accordingly attached most importance to the routemap, from which they could learn the roads, the stations, and the distances. If we may judge by the few examples which have been preserved, these sketches may, distortions apart, be compared with our railway maps. Cicero and Seneca mention general and topographical maps. In their •time the military routes were already divided into stages, furnished with milestones, and consequently measured. During the reign of Augustus a survey of the whole Roman empire was carried out. The routes were marked on parchment rolls for the purposes of military and civil administration. A map of the world was painted in a portico at Rome; a map of Italy was to be seen in the temple of Tellus. Particularly celebrated was Agrippa’s map. Pliny must plainly have been in possession of maps to keep himself right in regard to the great number of names which he records. A map of the Roman empire was drawn up under Domitian. The emperors of the 2d, 3d, and 4th centuries caused maps to be constructed and painted on the walls of public buildings in the cities of Gaul, as for example in Augustodunum (Autun); but of this class unfortunately none has been preserved. The only Roman map, indeed, of the imperial epoch which has come down to us is the Tabula Renting er ian a, which takes its modern name from Conrad Peutinger of Augsburg, who possessed it in the 16th century. It is now preserved in the Imperial Library of Λ τ ienna. Its origin as a map goes back at least to the 3d century of the Christian era,— to the time, that is, of Alexander Severus; but the actual copy is not older than the 13th century. It consists of twelve folio sheets of parchment, which originally formed one long strip. It has been published by Scheyb (1753) and Mannert (1834), and in excellent facsimile by Desjardins (1869, &c.). That the original of this remarkable map was of a circular shape has been satisfactorily proved, the pattern followed being that of the map of the world in the portico of the Campus Agrippae, which for centuries retained the rank of a model. Probably, however, such an orbis pictus was not exactly round, but rather oval. In its. construction effect was also given to the opinion current from the time of Herodotus that the extent of the inhabited world was greater from east to west than from north to south. From this it is clear that the Romans had not advanced beyond the earlier Greek conception, and were ignorant of the astronomico-mathematical method inaugurated by Hipparchus.

4. Map-making in the Middle Ages.— The scholastic Middle Ages confined themselves to imitation of the Roman orbes. Fulness of detail, moreover, was gradually lost, meagreness and crudity appearing in its place. Cartography in fact fell back to a second childhood. Fanatical exponents of the orthodox faith, like Lactantius, looked with disdain on all scientific culture. Geographical questions were of no interest to him because he regarded them as mere matters of opinion. Astronomy was a piece of fantastic folly, the knowledge of distant lands mere learned lumber. “Quae beatitude,” he exclaims, “erit mihi proposita si sciero unde Nilus oriatur vel quicquid de coelo physici delirant ?” As this narrow conception of things became on the whole the dominant one, geography and map-making practically ceased to exist. The doctrine of the sphericity of the earth was placed under the ban of the church, and people went back to the Homeric idea of a disk surrounded by the ocean. Isidore of Seville (ob. 636) taught: “Orbis a rotunditate circuli dictus quia sicut rota est. Undique enim Oceanus circumfluens ejus in circulo ambit fines. Divisus est autem trifarie; e quibus una pars Asia, altera Europa, tertia Africa, quae et Libya nuncupatur.” Isidore is a master of false etymological inferences. Deriving rotunditas from rota, a wheel, he declares that consequently the earth has the appearance of a wheel. Hence the name wheel-maps has been given to all those maps of the earlier Middle Ages. The three-fold division which he gives of the world-disk kept its ground for centuries, and the figure of the earth put on the miserable guise shown in fig. 2. It was only by the Greek fathers that the doctrine of the earth’s sphericity continued to be taught; and, as the knowledge of Greek rapidly died out in western Europe, the fountain was dried up from which a better science might have been derived. Many minor modifications were introduced into the map of the world, but the fundamental type remained as given in fig. 2. Jerusalem lay in the centre, Paradise in the extreme east. Clever artists gave life to the disk of the world by turreted pictures of towns—Jerusalem, Troy, Babylon, Rome, <fcc., and drew Adam and Eve in the midst of a Paradise which was defended by a fence of thorns or of flames, and, being considered the highest place in the world, was always introduced at the top of the map! The positions of Jerusalem and Paradise served to fix the other points. How long this conception remained in vogue appears from the fact that in 1422 Leonardo Dati, in a poem on the sphere {Della Spera), wrote, “AT within an O shows the design” {Un T d entre a uno 0 mostra il disegno), thus θ. In this way the whole science of cartography sank back below the level attained by the Ionian Greeks.

5. Map-making among the Arabians.— The first development of geographical science among the Arabs took place at Baghdad about 772 a.d., in the reign of the caliph Mansûr, and under the influence of an Indian astronomer and mathematician; and, not long after the works of Euclid, Archimedes, Aristotle, and Ptolemy were translated into Arabic, by orders of the caliph Mamιιn (813-833), a degree was measured in Mesopotamia in the plain of Sinjar, and a system of the world (Rasm el-ard) was constructed by his librarian Mohammed ben Musa of Khiva (Alcharesmius), in which every place was to be determined by longitude and latitude in the style of Ptolemy. But the science split up only too soon into a practical and a theoretical (astronomical) section—the one treating geography (ja'rafiyâ) as the doctrine of routes and provinces, the other as the doctrine of latitudes and longitudes. Astronomy contented itself with the astronomical determination of the position of places without drawing maps or exerting any influence on their projection; travellers and topographers on the other hand did not trouble themselves about astronomy, but like Istakhri (c. 750) or Ibn Haukal (c. 750) added maps to their descriptions which were destitute of any system of degrees, and betrayed by the roughness of their outlines the clumsiness of the draughtsman. Ultimately, like Dimishki(1327), they left mathematical geography completely out of their works, Ibn Haukal having already declared that mathematical division only brought confusion into geography. Only Edrisi’s map, engraved for King Roger II. of Sicily upon a silver plate (1164), forms an exception; but, as it was not drawn according to the Ptolemaic projection, but simply indicated the seven climates, it was after all but an unsuccessful copy of Ptolemy.

6. Nautical Maps.— The nautical (loxodromic or compass) maps, which make their first appearance in Italy in the 13th century, indicate a gratifying improvement in cartography after a long period of stagnation. These maps were constructed with the aid of the compass, and took the name of compass-maps because they are covered with the figure of a compass from which numerous straight lines radiate out in all directions over the sheet. The fact that the magnet turns towards the north is first mentioned in 1187. Flavio Gioja of Amalfi was perhaps the first to make a mariner’s compass and to teach seamen the use of that important instrument. The Italians divided the compass into eight parts (venti), assigning 45° to each— Tramontane (N.), Greco (N.E.), Levante (E.), Sirocco (S.E.), Ostro (S.), Libeccio or Garbino (S.W.), Ponente (W.), Maestro (N.W.). Every division had four quarters (quarte di vento), each of 11∣ degrees. The maps were produced as follows. The courses of individual ships were first of all inserted as straight lines,...

European Species. — Acer campestre, I.., the common maple, is common in hedgerows, but not often seen as a tree (see, however, Loudon, Arboretum, vol. i. p. 430). Loudon gives four varieties,— the downy-fruited, the variegated, the hill-inhabiting, and the Austrian. It occurs in northern Europe, the Caucasus, and northern Asia. The wood is excellent fuel, and makes the best charcoal. It is compact, of a tine grain, sometimes beautifully veined, and takes a high polish. Hence it has 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 and tough, are employed in France as whips. A. pseudo- Platanus, I.., 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. 11 is found in variou⅛ 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 wheelwrights, cabinetmakers, sculptors, &c., on the Continent, while knotted roots are used for inlaying. 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 noticeable (see Gard. Chron., 1881, p. 229). For remarkable variations in the number of cotyledons arising from fusion, see a paper by the ]ate Prof. J. S. Henslow in Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 346. A. Platanoides, I.., the Norway maple (Loudon, l.c., p. 408; Gard. Chron., 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 Brandis, For. Fl., 110). The wood of some species is used, as that of A. laevigatum, Wall., for building; that of A. caesium, Wall., being soft, inferior drinking cups are made of it; while that of A. pictum, Thunb., is white, light, and fine-grained.

Japanese Species.— Species, and many varieties, especially of A. palmatum, Thunb., generally known as polymorphum, with variously laciniated and more or less coloured foliage, have lately been introduced 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, atropurpurcum, 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. rufinerve, 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. carpinifolium, Sieb, and Zucc., with foliage resembling that of the hornbeams, are especially worthy of note.

North American Species.—A. saccharinum, I.., 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 axletrees 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 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 Loudon, l.c., p. 413; and Gard. Chron. 1878, p. 137.

A. rubrum, I.., the red-flowering or scarlet maple, is a middlesized tree, and was introduced in 1656. It is the first tree to blossom in spring in North America. The wood, like that of other species, 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 ornamental tree, as being conspicuous for its flowers in spring, and for its reel fruit and foliage in autumn. A. macrophyllum, Γursch., furnishes material for hats, baskets, mats, &c., from its inner bark, and the sap gives sugar. A. circinatum, Pursch., of California, has a fine, white, tough wood, which takes a good polish.

For description of other species of North America, see Gard. Chron., 1881, index, s.v. “Acer'’; Sargent’s Cat. of For. Trees of N. Amer.; Loud<n, l.c, p. 405 sq.; Gray’s Manual of Bot., p. 84.