FOI^EST 7A'E£S. 203 



There is another variety of this Maple known as the Acrr nigrum ot 

 -botanists, or Black Maple, this tree also yields a sweet sap, and is used 

 •occasionally, but the Sugar Maple proper, takes precedence of all the 

 species for the purpose of sugar-making. 



Red Maple- -Swamp Maple— ^^tv/- rnbnnii, (L.) 



" When April winds grew soft, 



The Maples burst into a flush of scarlet flower."— ^5;-)'^;?/. 



The poet's description belongs only to the Red-flowered or Swamp 

 Maple. The blossoms of the Sugar Maple are of a delicate tinge of 

 yellowish green, in long pendent racemes, very graceful indeed, but 

 less brilliant in colour than the early flowering Swamp Maple. Early m 

 Spring, while yet leafless, the branches are adorned with an abundance 

 of bright red flowers on short foot stalks, clustered together. We see 

 these red-flowered trees by the sidewalks of many of our Canadian 

 towns, where their bright colours give a cheerful appearance to the streets, 

 before any green leaves have been put forth on the deciduous trees. 

 The flowers of the Red Maple are followed by the ornamental winged 

 fruit which is tinged with pink, deepening to bright crimson as the 

 season advances. In all stages there is beauty to be perceived. The 

 large masses of foliage aff^ord a refreshing shade during the hot days of 

 summer after the bright blossoms have fallen. 



The native and favourite haunt of the Red Maple is on the borders 

 -of streams and lakes, often I have seen the surface of the waters blush- 

 ing red, when the rufiling breezes have scattered the red flowers in a 

 rosy shower upon the lake, and later in the summer, when the pendent 

 fruit hangs gracefully below the bright green leaves, it is beautiful to 

 watch the reflection colouring the still waters. What painter's colours 

 can match the rich crimsons and scarlets of the foliage ; any close imita- 

 tion of the gorgeous colouring of those dying leaves, would be regarded 

 -as a gross exaggeration of nature. Yet there we behold them, year after 

 year, silently falling and strewing the earth with a carpet so richly tinted 

 that it seems almost a sin to tread such beauty beneath our feet, and 

 mar its loveliness. 



Not less brilliant are the autumnal tints of the Sugar Maple ; some 

 few leaves will turn to a vivid scarlet at the end of a branch, while aU 

 the rest are fresh and green, the effect is as if the tree were putting forth 

 a rare show of bright-hued flowers ; but it is only the fore-runner of 

 rapid decay. 



The Red-Maple sap is deficient in sugary principle, being more 

 watery ; and is, therefore, made no use of by the backwoods settlers, as 

 >the result would not pay for the labour required to obtain the sugar. 



