194 



VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



from it by its longer, more deepl y 

 cut, lighter green leaves which are 

 silvery white on the lower side. 

 Although the silver maple flour- 

 ishes best in moist soil, it will make 

 vigorous growth and become a 

 beautiful shade tree in dry loca- 

 tions. It is not so hardy or long 

 lived as either the red or the sugar 

 maple in many situations. 



The fruits are two or three 

 inches long, larger than in either 

 of the other species. They mature 

 and fall in early summer. 



SILVER MAPLE 

 Leaves arid fruit, X y 3 . 



ked maple (sopt maple, swamp maple). Acer rubrum Linn. 



The bright scarlet flowers of this maple give us the first spring welcome 

 from the trees. When the red maple is a blaze of color and the other trees 

 are bare and brown, it is conspicuous and 

 unmistakable, and in autumn the rich 

 coloring of its leaves makes it conspicuous 

 again. The leaves of the silver maple 

 turn yellow and those of the sugar maple 

 yellow or red, but not the crimson or 

 deep red of the red maple. It is distin- 

 guished from the sugar maple by its 

 smoother, dark gray bark and by the 

 deeper acute incisions of the leaves al- 

 though they are subject to much varia- 

 tion. The fruit is about one inch long 

 and like that of silver maple falls in early 

 summer. This tree, common throughout 

 eastern United States, is very generally 

 distributed in Vermont. It is especially 

 found in low, moist soil. The red maple 

 yields a sweet sap, inferior, however, to 

 that of the sugar maple. The wood is rather soft with a fine smooth 

 grain. " Curled " maple may occur in this species. 



RED MAPLE 

 Leaf and fruit, X %. 



