XXXIII. THE RED MAPLE. 483 



Whenever transplanted, they should not have their heads or 

 branches lopped, as they recover very slowly from such wounds. 

 Within Massachusetts, there are found five species of Maple, 

 three of them timber trees ; 1, the Red Maple ; 2, the White or 

 River Maple, the flowers of both of which appear before the 

 leaves ; 3, the Rock Maple or Sugar Maple, whose flowers ap- 

 pear with the leaves; and two tall shrubs or small trees ; 4, the 

 Striped Maple, with flowers in pendulous, and 5, the Mountain 

 Maple, with flowers in upright racemes, appearing after the 

 evolution of the leaves. 



Sp. 1. The Red Maple. Acer rubrum: L. 



Figured, the leaves, in Abbott's Insects, II, Plate 93 : in Audubon's Birds, 

 fruit, Vol. I, Plate 54, flowers, I, 67. 



The Red Maple, called also the White, the Swamp, the Scar- 

 let, and the Soft Maple, is a tree of middling size, growing 

 abundantly in the swamps and low grounds, in most parts of 

 the State. Its flowers, which appear in April or May, before 

 the leaves, are of a bright crimson or scarlet, and make a strik- 

 ing appearance in whorls or pairs, of sessile, crowded bunches, 

 on the scarlet or purple branches. The flowers are of two or 

 three kinds, found on different trees. They issue from opposite, 

 somewhat quadrangular scale-buds, each bud consisting of sev- 

 eral scales, of which the inner ones are more delicate, and con- 

 taining about 5 flowers. The barren flowers are made of a cup 

 of 8 to 10 or 12 divisions, the outer ones, the sepals, broader, 

 the alternate, inner ones, the petals, narrower, more delicate, 

 and often bending inwards. The stamens are 4 to 5 or 6, twice 

 as long as the sepals, to which they are opposite, and proceed- 

 ing, with them, from the outer edge of a fleshy, glandular disk. 

 In the perfect, fertile flowers, the calyx and corolla rise from 

 one cup, the sepals broader, external, the petals narrower, alter- 

 nate, internal, sometimes fringed. The stamens 5, opposite the 

 sepals, short, proceeding from the outer edge of a fleshy disk. 

 The styles are 2, long, diverging, curved, the upper edge a 

 downy stigma. The germs are 2, changing into the united 

 samarsc or keys, with wings resembling those of an insect. 



The recent shoots are of a reddish or crimson color, dotted 



