484 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



with brown, and changing gradually into the beautiful clear 

 ashy gray of the trunk. In old trees, the bark cracks and may 

 be easily peeled off in long, slender flakes. The gray, uniform 

 color of the bark is often varied with patches of white lichens, 

 and not uncommonly covered entirely with those of various 

 shades of gray or white, finely dotted with their black or brown 

 fructification. The leaves, which are plaited in the bud, where 

 they are protected by 4 pairs of leaf-buds, are on long, round 

 petioles, which are usually reddish, and toward autumn of a 

 bright scarlet. They are commonly of 3 or 5 lobes, the notches 

 between the lobes always sharp. They are usually heart- 

 shaped, but sometimes straight or rounded at base. They vary 

 exceedingly in size and shape, being sometimes very broad, 

 with 5 palmately divergent lobes, sometimes long and narrow, 

 the lower lobes reduced to mere serratures, and the middle ones 

 prolonged and nearly parallel to the terminal one ; the mar- 

 gin slightly and irregularly toothed, or deeply cut into long, 

 slender serratures. The surface is liable to be variegated with 

 lines of scarlet or to become entirely scarlet, or crimson, or 

 orange, at every season of the year. This occasionally happens 

 to all the leaves on a tree, even in the middle of summer, form- 

 ing a gorgeous contrast with the green of the rest of the forest. 

 The differences in the leaves are accompanied by corresponding 

 differences in the branches and general appearance of the tree ; 

 and the common opinion is, that there are several distinct vari- 

 eties of this tree. The leaves begin to change their color in Au- 

 gust, and are usually gone by the first of November. 



The observation, for a single year, of the varying colors of 

 the Red Maple, would be sufficient to disprove the common 

 theory that the colors of the leaves in autumn are dependent 

 on the frosts. It is not an uncommon thing to see a single tree 

 in a forest of maples turning to a crimson or scarlet, in July or 

 August, while all the other trees remain green. A single bril- 

 liantly colored branch shows itself on a verdant tree ; or a few 

 scattered leaves exhibit the tints of October, while all the rest 

 of the tree and wood have the soft greens of June. The sting 

 of an insect, the gnawing of a worm at the pith, or the presence 

 of minute, parasitic plants, often gives the premature colors of 



