XXXIII. THE WHITE MAPLE. 4S7 



rapidly when dry, and, for this purpose, it is five eighths as 

 valuable as rock maple, and about half as valuable as hickory. 



Bancroft says that the bark, when used with an aluminous 

 basis, produces a lasting cinnamon color on wool and on cotton ; 

 and with sulphate or acetate of iron, communicates to them a 

 more intense, pure and perfect black than even galls, or any 

 other vegetable substance known to him ; and that the leaves 

 produce effects nearly similar to the bark.* Darlington says 

 that the bark affords a dark, purplish blue dye, and makes a 

 pretty good bluish-black ink. For both these purposes, its use 

 is well known in this State. The sap may, like that of the 

 other maples, be boiled down to sugar, but it is only half as 

 rich in saccharine matter as that of the Sugar Maple. 



The Red Maple is of rapid growth, young trees increasing in 

 diameter from two fifths to two thirds of an inch in a year, — 

 older ones somewhat less ; — the average may be not far from 

 one quarter of an inch. Though it may be made to grow in 

 any land not too dry, it flourishes and attains its largest size 

 only in rich swampy land. 



It is found in Canada, and thence, southward to Florida, and 

 westward to the sources of the Oregon. 



Sp. 2. The White Maple. Acer dasycarpwn. Ehrenberg. 

 Figured in Michaux, I, 213, Plate 40, and Loudon's Arboretum, V, 39 and 40. 



Along the sandy or gravelly banks of clear, flowing streams, 

 the White Maple is found all through the middle and western 

 parts of the State. I have not yet found it nearer to Boston 

 than the Ipswich River and the Sudbury River, in Wayland 

 and Sudbury. On the rich meadows on Connecticut River, and 

 on the Nashua at Lancaster, where alone I have found it grow- 

 ing in favorable circumstances, it expands with an ample spread 

 of limb, forming a broad and magnificent, if not a lofty head. 



From the red maple, with which it is sometimes confounded, 

 it may be easily distinguished by the silvery whiteness of the 

 under surface of the leaves, and by the color of the spray. 

 The young shoots are of a light green, inclined to yellow, with 



* Philosophy of Permanent Colors, II, 272. 



