FI.OWEES OF ACER SACCHABINUM. 201 



a very liberal supply of both staminate and pistillate flowers. 

 These Avere used after fresh material was no longer obtainable, 

 and though less easily handled, were quite as valuable for 

 showing the structural variations. In all, 1000 staminate and 

 al)(>iit 200 pistillate flowers were examined. 



The staminate and pistillate flowers occur in separate clus- 

 ters but on the same tree, the former being much more numerous. 

 A cluster of staminate flowers contains from three to ten fas- 

 cicles, each of which in turn, contains five staminate flowers 

 ahvays arranged in a detinite pattern with one flower in the 

 center. These five flowers are protected by a series of tomentose 

 scales, ten in nundjer, the outer two of which are early deciduous. 

 The color of these scales varies froui a dark reddish-brown in 

 case of the outer ones to a pale green within. The calyx is some- 

 what five-lobed at the top, rather long and narrow in the stami- 

 nate, short and broad in tlu' pistillate flower. 



Sargent gives the number of stamens present from three to 

 seven, but in the 1000 flowers examined, no flower was found 

 having but three stamens, and only four flowers contained as 

 many as seven stamens. Fourteen per cent, contained four 

 stamens, sixty-five per cent, five, and the remaining twenty-one 

 per cent, had six stamens each. An additional 500 flowers ex- 

 auiincd for nuud3er of stamens only, failed to reveal auy uiore 

 with either three or seven. 



The rudimentary pistil is most commonly found in stami- 

 nate flowers of four stamens. This pistil is usually dwarfed and 

 quite commonly misshapen, but sometimes it is perfect and ma- 

 tures into a well-formed, two-seeded fruit. In flowers bearing- 

 five stamens, the pistil is merely rudimentary, consisting of a 

 small knob in the center of the base of the flower, and is covered 

 with long white hairs. Occasionally only the hairs are found. 

 In six-stamened flowers little trace of any rudimentary jDistil is 

 found, in many cases even the hairs being absent. In the four 

 flowers which contained seven stamens, absolutely no trace of a 

 rudimentary pistil could be found. 



