ACER SACCHARUM, MARSH. 145 



at acute angles ; secondary branches straight, slender, nearly 

 horizontal or declining at the base, leaving the stem higher up 

 at sharper and sharper angles, repeatedly subdividing, form- 

 ing a dense and rather stiff spray of nearly uniform length ; 

 head symmetrical, varying greatly in shape ; in young trees 

 often narrowly cylindrical, becoming pyramidal or broadly 

 egg-shaped with age ; clothed with dense masses of foliage^ 

 purple-tinged in spring, light green in summer, and gorgeous 

 beyond all other trees of the forest, with the possible excep- 

 tion of the red maple, in its autumnal oranges, yellows, and 

 reds. 



Bark. Bark of trunk and principal branches gray, very 

 smooth, close and firm in young trees, in old trees becoming 

 deeply furrowed, often cleaving up at one edge in long, thick, 

 irregular plates ; season's shoots at length of a shining red- 

 dish-brown, smooth, numerously pale-dotted, turning gray the 

 third year. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds sharp-pointed, reddish-brown, 

 minutely pubescent, terminal J inch long, lateral ^ inch, ap- 

 pressed, the inner scales lengthening with the growth of the 

 shoot. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-5 inches long, with a some- 

 what greater breadth, purplish and more or less pubescent 

 when opening, at maturity dark green above, paler, with or with- 

 out pubescence beneath, changing to brilliant reds and yellows 

 in autumn ; lobes sometimes 3, usually 5, acuminate, spar- 

 ingly sinuate-toothed, with shallow, rounded sinuses ; base 

 subcordate, truncate, or wedge-shaped ; veins and veinlets 

 conspicuous beneath ; leafstalks long, slender. 



Inflorescence. April 1-15. Appearing with the leaves in 

 nearly sessile clusters, from terminal and lateral buds ; 

 flowers greenish-yellow, pendent on long thread-like, hairy 

 stems ; sterile and fertile on the same or on different trees, 

 usually in separate, but not infrequently in the same cluster ; 

 the 5-lobed calyx cylindrical or bell-shaped, hairy ; petals none ; 

 stamens 6-8, in sterile flowers much longer than the calyx, in 

 fertile scarcely exserted ; ovary smooth, abortive in sterile 

 flowers, in fertile surmounted by a single style with two 

 divergent, thread-like, stigmatic lobes. 



