102 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



holly, for inlaying furniture, of mahogany, cherry tree and walnut : 

 though it is less proper for this purpose, as it soon changes color. 

 Wooden bowls are also made of it when ash or poplar cannot 

 be procured. The charcoal of this wood is preferred by hatters 

 to every other, for heating their boilers, as it affords a heat more 

 uniform, and of longer duration. In Ohio, the sap is converted 

 into sugar by the same process as that of the sugar maple. Like 

 the red maple, it yields but half the product from a given measure 

 of sap ; but the unrefined sugar is whiter and more agreeable to 

 the taste than that of the sugar maple. The sap is in motion 

 earlier in this species than in the sugar maple, beginning to 

 ascend about the middle of January ; so that the work of 

 extracting the sugar is sooner completed. The cellular integu- 

 ment rapidly produces a black precipitate with sulphate of iron. 



Mountain Maple. Acer montanum. 



This species is more abundant in Canada, Nova Scotia, and 

 along the whole range of the Alleghanies than in any other part 

 of North America. It is sometimes called Low Maple, from the 

 dwarfish stature of the tree. It is generally called Mountain Maple, 

 which seems to be more appropriate, as it grows of preference 

 on the declivities of mountains exposed to the north, and in cool, 

 moist and shady situations, on the abrupt and rocky banks of 

 torrents and rivers. 



The mountain maple seldom rises above 20 feet in height, and 

 it often blooms at an elevation less than six feet. It most 

 frequently grows in the form of a shrub, with a single and straight 

 stock. The leaves are large, opposite and divided into three 

 acute and indented lobes: they are slightly hairy at their 

 infolding, and when fully grown, they are uneaven and of dark 

 green upon the upper surface. It puts forth small blossoms, of 

 a greenish color, which are produced in semi-erect spikes from 

 two to four inches in length. The seeds which are smaller than 

 those of any other of the American maple, are fixed upon slender, 

 pendulous foot stalks ; they are reddish at their maturity, and 



