DENDROLOGY. 



103 



each of them are surmounted by a membraneous wing, and has 

 a small cavity upon one side. 



The mountain maple is too small to be profitably cultivated 

 for its wood, and as its flowers, its roots and its bark are destitute 

 of any very sensible odor, it promises no resources to medicine. 

 It is sometimes grafted on the sycamore, and like the moose 

 wood, it is thus augmented to double its natural size. 



Ash-Leaved Maple. Acer negundo. 



In the country west of 

 the Alleghanies, where this 

 tree is uncommon, it is 

 called Box Elder; and is 

 called by the French of 

 Illinois, Erable a Giguieres. 

 This tree is seldom found 

 in the Northern States or in 

 the maritime parts of the 

 Southern. Ft grows on the 

 banks of the Delaware in 

 the neighborhood of Phila- 

 delphia, and even there it is 

 rare. West of the moun- 

 tains, on the contrary, it is 

 extremely gnultiplied. It 

 grows most abundantly in 

 the bottoms which skirt the rivers, where the soil is deep, fertile, 

 constantly moist, and often inundated with water. 



The ash-leaved maple attains the height of 40 or 50 feet, and 

 a diameter of 15 or 20 inches. The bark of the trunk is brown 

 and has a disagreeable odor in the cellular integument. The 

 proportion of the sap to the heart is large, except in very old 

 trees : in these the heart is variegated with rose-colored and 

 bluish veins. It branches at a small height and expands into a 

 head like that of the apple tree. The leaves are opposite, and 

 are from 6 to 1 5 inches long, according to the vigor of the tree, 



PLATE VII. 



Fig. 1. A leaflet. Fig. 2. The seed. 



