736 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



roller, bearing on with all the strength possible; a second passage of the 

 roller blurs the print. Two prints are made at each rolling, one of the 

 upper, and one of the under side of the leaf. Dry and wrinkled leaves may 

 be made pliant by soaking in water, drying between blotters before they are 

 inked. 



Prints may also be made a number at a time by pressing them under 

 weights, being careful to put the sheets of paper with the leaves between 

 the pages of old magazines or folded newspapers, in order that the impres- 

 sion of one set of leaves may not mar the others. If a letter-press is avail- 

 able for this purpose, it does the work quickly and well. 



SAP 

 Strong as the sea and silent as the grave, 



It flows and ebbs unseen, 

 Flooding the earth, a fragrant tidal wave, 

 With mists of deepening green. 



-JOHN B. TABB. 



THE MAPLES 



Teacher's Story 



HE sugar maple, combining beauty with many kinds of 

 utility, is dear to the American heart. Its habits of 

 growth are very accommodating ; when planted where 

 it has plenty of room, it shows a short trunk and 

 oval head, which, like a dark green period, prettily 

 punctuates the summer landscape; but when it 

 occurs in the forest, its noble bole, a pillar of granite 

 gray, rises to uphold the arches of the forest canopy ; 

 and it attains there the height of 100 feet. It grows 

 rapidly and is a favorite shade tree, twenty years 

 being long enough to make it thus useful. The 



foliage is deep green in the summer, the leaf being a glossy, dark green above 

 and paler beneath. It has five main lobes, the two nearest the stem being 

 smaller; the curved edges between the lobes are marked with a few, 

 smoothly cut, large teeth; the main veins extend directly from the petiole 

 to the sharp tips of the lobes ; the petiole is long, slender, and occasionally 

 red. The leaves are placed opposite. The shade made by the foliage of the 

 maple is so dense that it shades down the plants beneath it, even grass grow- 

 ing but sparsely there. If a shade tree stands in an exposed position, it 

 grows luxuriously to the leeward of the prevailing winds, and thus makes a 

 one-sided record of their general direction. 



It is its autumn transfiguration which has made people observant of the 

 maple's beauty; yellow, orange, crimson and scarlet foliage make these 

 trees gorgeous when October comes. Nor do the trees get their color uni- 

 formly; even in September, the maple will show a scarlet branch in the 

 midst of its green foliage. I believe this is a hectic flush and a premonition 

 of death to the branch which, less vigorous than its neighbors, is being 

 pruned out by Nature's slow but sure method. After the vivid color is on 

 the maple, it begins to shed its leaves. This is by no means the sad act 

 which the poets would have us believe ; the brilliant colors are an evidence 



