636 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Missouri, eastern Kansas, and southward through western New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania to southwestern Virginia, and Kentucky; comparatively rare near Montreal 

 and in Vermont, more abundant farther west, almost entirely replacing Acer Saccha- 

 rum in Iowa, and the only Sugar Maple of South Dakota; easily distinguished in 

 summer by its heavy drooping leaves, and at all seasons of the year by the orange 

 color of the branchlets. 



Occasionally planted in the region where it grows naturally as a shade-tree. 



9. Acer leucoderme, Small. Sugar Maple. 



(Acer Sacchanim, var. leucoderme, Silva N. Am. xiii. 7.) 



Leaves usually truncate or slightly cordate at the base, more or less deeply 

 divided into 3-5 acute caudate-acuminate lobes coarsely and sinuately dentate or 

 undulate, when they unfold coated below with long matted pale caducous hairs, and 

 at maturity thin, dark yellow-green above, bright yellow-green and covered below 

 with soft close velvety pubescence, 2'-3|^' in diameter, often turning in the autumn 

 bright scarlet on the upper surface before falling; their petioles slender, glabrous, 

 I'-l^' long. FloTvers yellow, about ^ long, on slender, glabrous pedicels, in nearly 

 sessile clusters; calyx campanulate, glabrous or slightly villose, with rounded ciliate 

 lobes; corolla 0; stamens 7 or 8, their filaments longer than the calyx, much shorter 



than the calyx in the pistillate flower; style elongated, with short spreading lobes. 

 Fruit villose, with long scattered pale hairs until nearly grown, becoming glabrous 

 at maturity, the wings wide-spreading or divergent, |'-f ' long; seeds smooth, light 

 red-brown, about ^' long. 



A tree, usually 20-25 high, with a trunk a foot in diameter, occasionally 40 

 high, with a trunk 18'-20' in diameter, short slender branches forming a rather com- 

 pact round-topped head, and slender glabrous branchlets dark green when they first 

 appear, becoming bright red-brown and lustrous during their first summer, and 

 marked by numerous small oblong pale lenticels, gradually growing darker in their 

 second year and finally light gray-green. Winter-buds ovate, acute, dark brown, 

 glabrous, rather more than ^^g' long, the inner scales becoming bright crimson and 

 very conspicuous when the trees are in flower in early spring. Bark of young stems 

 and large branches close, light gray or grayish brown, becoming near the base of old 



