482 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



hardy to flourish here, and have sufficient claims as ornamental 

 trees to invite the attempt to cultivate them. 



Dr. Harris describes two kinds of insects whose attacks are 

 very pernicious to the maples. The first is the beautiful Clytiis, 

 (Report, p. S4-5,) a beetle about an inch in length, of a black 

 ground color, ornamented with bands and spots of yellow. It 

 lays its eggs on the trunk of the Sugar Maple in July and Au- 

 gust. The grubs burrow in the bark as soon as hatched, and 

 are there protected during the winter. " In the spring, they 

 penetrate deeper, and form, in the course of the summer, long 

 and winding galleries in the wood, up and down the trunk. In 

 order to check their devastations, they should be sought for in 

 the spring, when they will readily be detected by the saw-dust 

 that they cast out of their burrows ; and, by a judicious use of 

 a knife and stiff wire, they may be cut out or destroyed before 

 they have gone deeply into the wood." 



The other, less injurious, is the caterpillar of the ApatUa 

 Americana, (Report, p. 317,) one of the owlet moths. It feeds 

 on the leaves of the several kinds of maple, as well as on those 

 of the elm and chestnut. 



The maples may be propagated by seeds, and in some in- 

 stances by layers, by cuttings of the roots, and by grafting. 

 Most of those of our own country have been successfully en- 

 grafted upon the sycamore of Europe. The seeds of most spe- 

 cies ripen early; those of the Red Maple and the White, early 

 in summer, of the others, not later than October. They may be 

 gathered when the keys begin to turn brown ; and sown in 

 autumn, soon after gathering, or in the succeeding spring. The 

 latter is preferable where moles or mice abound. The seeds 

 should be covered with not more than a quarter or half an inch 

 of soil, but the surface should be protected by leaves, straw, or 

 some other light substance. They will come up in five or six 

 weeks. For keeping through the winter, the seeds should be 

 mixed with sand or earth and kept moderately dry. If kept 

 perfectly dry and without earth, they are apt to lose their power 

 of vegetation. The young plants are ready to be transplanted 

 at a year's growth, and do better if moved then than afterwards. 



