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HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Bed Maple. 

 Acer rubrum — Linn. 



Ked maple, or as it is also known, scarlet 

 maple, swamp maple, soft maple and water 

 maple, grows from New Brunswick, Que- 

 bec and Ontario south to Florida; west 

 to Dakota, Nebraska, Indian Territory and 

 the Trinity river of Texas; north to Lake 

 of the Woods. It reaches its 

 maximum development along the 

 Wabash and Yazoo rivers. 



This tree is styled red maple in 

 Maine, Xew Hampshire, Vermont, 

 ilassachusetts, Ehode Island, Con- 

 necticut, New York, New Jersey, 

 Pennsj-lvania, Delaware, Virginia, 

 West Virginia, North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, 

 Indiana, Ohio, Ontario, Iowa, 

 Wisconsin and Nebraska; swamp 

 maple in Vermont, New Hamp- 

 shire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

 Rhode Island, New York, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 

 North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, 

 Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, In- 

 diana, Ontario affd Minnesota; 

 soft maple in Vermont, Massa- 

 chusetts, New York, Virginia, 

 Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, In- 

 diana, Ohio, Ontario, Michigan, 

 Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota; 

 water maple in Mississippi, Louis- 

 iana, Texas, Kentucky, Missouri; 

 white maple in Maine and New 

 Hampshire; shoe-peg maple in 

 West Virginia; erable in Louis- 

 iana; scarlet maple in Texas. Tlu' 

 Onondaga Indians of New York 

 knew it as ah-weh-hot-kwah, 

 which means red flower. 



The tree is rounded in shape, 

 with upright branches. It at- 

 tains a height of from fifty to 

 one hundred and twenty feet, and 

 a diameter of from two and one- 

 half to four feet. It blooms 

 earlier in the spring than most 

 other trees, and takes its name 

 from the bright red of its flowers, 

 rather than from any attribute of 

 its wood. 



The bark of the young tree is 

 dark grey and smooth, becoming 

 rough as the tree grows old. The branches 

 and twigs have a reddish cast, with long 

 white streaks upon them. • 



The flowers are bright red and very con- 

 spicuous, growing in umbel-like, drooping 

 clusters, and appear before the leaves. - The 

 staminate and pistillate ones frequently 

 grow on different trees, and always in sep- 

 arate clusters. 



TWENTY-FIRST PAPER. 



The leaves arc simple, with long reddish 

 petioles; they have three or five lobes, the 

 lower pair often being entirely missing, 

 and small if present. Each lobe has a 

 pointed apex and is irregularly serrate. 

 The base of the leaf is rounded; also the 

 sinuses, which extend far into the body 

 of the leaf. The upper surface of the leaf 



TvruAi, i;i;i> matlio koukst guowtii, tkiNXesske 



is a bright green, the lower a silvery white, 

 being free from the down which is charac- 

 teristic of other varieties of the maple 

 family. .\ii authority (Mathews) in si)c:ik- 

 ing of the leaf of the red maple, says: "I 

 jpresent several difl'ercnt specimens to call 

 attention to the fact that Nature docs 

 not follow cast-iron rules, however we mis- 

 take the botanist 'a descriptions as such. 



What wo choose to call Nature's rules are 

 really general principles characterized by 

 a remarkable quality of elasticity. I have 

 not yet found a botanist, to whom I had oc- 

 casion to defer some dillieult specimen, 

 who did not preface his opinion with some 

 reference to this elasticity. Now, in dis- 

 tinguishing the red from other maples, I 

 should never rely wholly on a par- 

 ticular leaf. ♦ » * The long, 

 narrow leaf was taken from a 

 young tree which grows in the 

 White Mountains; the typical leaf 

 was taken from an older tree in the 

 Arnold Arboretum; and the three- 

 lobed leaf represents a specimen be- 

 longing to a large tree at Plymouth, 

 X. 11." The leaves of the red 

 Tuaple turn a brilliant scarlet in 

 the autumn, and it is at all times 

 a decidedly ornamental tree. 



The fruit is bright red and 

 glabrous, growing on long pe- 

 duncles; the seeds are winged, the 

 wings only slightly diverging. 



The wood is close and compact 

 iu structure. The heartwood is 

 brown, tinged with red; the sap- 

 wood is much lighter. The medul- 

 lary rays are numerous but ob- 

 scure. The wood is heavy and 

 hard. It is easily worked and 

 very clastic, but not strong. Its 

 weight, seasoned, is thirty-i'ight 

 [louuils per cubic foot. 



Ked maple is used very ex- 

 tensively iu cabinet making, iu 

 manufacturing turnery, gun stocks 

 and woodwork. Occasionally a 

 piece with an undulating grain or 

 "curly" figure is found. This 

 kind is much more valuable. 



Sometimes the trees are tapped 

 and a small amount of sugar ob- 

 tained from the sap. A domestic 

 ink can be made from red maple 

 by boiling it in soft water and 

 adding sulphate of inm to the tan- 

 nin contained therein. This ink 

 was formerly used extensively for 

 dyeing. 



Alice Lounsberry, in her "(iuide 

 to the Trees," writes as follows: 

 "Often before the snow is off 

 the ground the sap of the rod 

 maple begins to ascend; and in 

 earliest March, while the odor of winter's 

 pageant is still in the air, the flower-buds 

 liogin to expand. Then it is not long be- 

 fore they unfold their exquisite blossoms 

 which hang in the bare trees like a shower 

 of crimson light. As we wander by the. 

 side of a stream, straining our eyes per- 

 haps for the first sight of the white violet, 

 they may bo swaying over our Ucada. 



