

NORTH AMERICAN MAPLES* 97 



Engler's Bot. Jahrb. vii. 242 in part; Wesmael, Acer, 

 61. — A. palmifolium var. concolor Schwerin, Gar- 

 tenflora, xlii. 457, f . 95, nos. 6 and 7. 

 Bark nearly black ; * internodes stout, sometimes short, 

 dull, buff; buds dark, ovoid, often obtuse; petioles dilated 

 at base so as usually to cover the buds, with adnata trian- 

 gular or oblong f oliaceous stipules ; leaves soft but of heavy 

 texture, large (usually 5 to 6 in. broad), with drooping 

 sides, dull and dark green above, clear green and usually 

 persistently downy below, isodiametric, the larger deeply 

 cordate with often closed sinus, 3- to 5-lobed, with 

 shallow broad sinuses from which the lobes are undulately 

 narrowed to an acute or acuminate point, rarely with short 

 lateral acuminations ; fruit as in the last. — Plate 7. 



Range, Vermont (?) to New York, Virginia, Kentucky, 

 Missouri and Michigan. — Specimens examined from New 

 York, Pennsylvania ( Lycoming Co . , Small and Heller, Sept. 

 19, 1890; Westmoreland Co., Pierron, May 1, 1877), District 

 of Columbia (Little Falls, Ward, 1877), Virginia (Smyth 

 Co., Small, May 24 and July 9, 1892, and Britton and 

 Vail, June 1892), West Virginia (White Sulphur Springs, 

 Britton, Aug. 19, 1890), Kentucky (hb. Gray and hb. 

 Chapman), Missouri (Jackson Co., Bush, Sept. 28, 1893), 

 Ohio (Cincinnati, Lloyd, 1888; Ashtabula Co., Bogue, 

 1892), Indiana (Indianapolis, Britton, Aug. 23, 1890, 

 Hitchcock, Aug. 25, 1890; Wabash, Mills, June 9, 1873), 



and Michigan (Lansing, Wheeler, May 1890 and June and 

 Oct. 1891; Bailey, Sept. 15, 1887 and May 24, 1888), 



Cultivated in St. Louis. 



Specimens from Vermont (Pringle, 1879; Bobbins) and 

 Missouri (Allenton, Letterman, Sept. 25, 1880; Jackson 



Rush states, in the American Philosophical Transactions, 1793, iii. 

 65, that sugar trees tapped by " a small woodpecker which feeds upon 

 the sap " (the sap sucker) afterward acquire a black color and possess 

 sweeter sap than the others, but he does not note that the same result 

 follows tapping for sugar, and it may be inferred that he had under his 

 observation trees of the black maple or var. barbatum y which, possessing 

 sweeter sap, may prove more attractive to these birds. 



10 7 



