490 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



appearance of vigor. In open pastures, on moist hills and moun- 

 tain sides, it forms a broad pyramidal top, the branches coming 

 out horizontally or with a gradual upward curvature, from a 

 point eight or ten feet from the ground. On the plain, in deep, 

 moist, clayey soils, the top assumes the shape of a massive 

 cylindrical column of great height, often seventy or eighty feet. 

 In the forest, it assumes its most remarkable appearance ; some- 

 times, from some early casualty, it is seen rising with many 

 angles, not erect but zigzag, and with broad, rounded, oblique 

 ridges on its trunk, sixty or seventy feet without branches, and 

 spreading at top into a flat head of many limbs ; or, more fre- 

 quently, going up, from a base three or four, or even six feet in 

 diameter, with a straight, erect trunk, disfigured, in very old 

 trees, by gnarled protuberances, but diminishing in size very 

 gradually, to a vast height, and there, above the tops of the 

 other trees, throwing out a noble head of contorted and irregu- 

 lar but vigorous branches. The roots are large, diverging just 

 above or at the surface of the ground, and running near it at 

 first, but afterwards penetrating deep. The bark is of a light 

 bluish-gray color, and, on young trees, very smooth ; on old trees 

 it is rough, with very long, ascending scales, projecting irregu- 

 larly at their edges, but firmly attached at the middle or one 

 side. 



The leaves, on long, slender petioles, are from three to five 

 inches long, and of still greater breadth. They are strongly 

 heart-shaped, or sometimes straight at base, and palmately di- 

 vided into 5 diverging lobes, which are separated by rounded 

 sinuses, and of which the two lower ones are much smaller and 

 shorter than the others ; the lobes tapering to a slender point, 

 and the larger veins forming a few, large, prominent teeth. 

 They are bright green and smooth above, pale glaucous, and 

 at first downy, afterwards smooth beneath. On different trees 

 they differ strikingly in their color, being sometimes of a dark, 

 and sometimes of a light green on their upper surface. In au- 

 tumn, they become, often before the first touch of the frost, of a 

 splendid orange or gold, sometimes of a bright scarlet or crim- 

 son color, each tiee commonly retaining, from year to year, the 

 same color or colors, and differing somewhat from every other. 



