Acer. SAPINDACE^. 437 



Alberta, Macoun ; fl. May, June ; fr. August, September. A species with strikingly variable 

 foliage. 



* * Petals cucuUate, considerably shorter than the sepals : leaves mostly 7-9-lobed. 

 A. circinatum, Pursh. (Vine Maple.) A small tree or low spreading or even prostrate 

 shrub, with smoothish brown bark : branchlets glabrous or very early glabrate : leaves of 

 nearly orbicular outline, cordate or subtruncate at the base, and with 5 to 11 short ovate 

 acute or acuminate, sharply serrate lobes, at first villous, at maturity quite glabrous except 

 for a tuft of hairs on the upper surface at the very base where the principal nerves divero-e : 

 the inner bud-scales very large, 1 to 2 inches in length, broadly spatulate, soft-pubesce*ut, 

 usually rose-colored, somewhat persistent : flowers in nodding or pendulous subsessile or 

 peduncled corymbs : sepals oblong, purple or red : petals small, greenish, ovate, acutish, 

 with strongly infiexed margins : segments of the fruit very widely spreading or commonly 

 divaricate. — Fl. i. 267 ; Nutt. Sylv. ii. 80, t. 68 (by error numbered 67) ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 i. 247 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 112, t. 39 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 107 ; Sargent, Silv. 

 ii. 93, t. 38. A. virgatum, Raf. New Fl. Am. i. 48. — Rich soil, by streams and in woodland, 

 N. Central California to Brit. Columbia; fl. April, May. 



§ 3. Rubra, Pax. Flowers appearing before the leaves, polygamous, monoe- 

 cious, or dioecious, with or without petals ; the ^ flowers subsessile or short- 

 pedicelled in capitate or subcapitate clusters ; 9 flowers in sessile umbels . disk 

 rudimentary or obsolete : leaves simple, glaucous beneath. — Pax in Enfl. Jahrb. 

 vi. 326, & in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 5, 326. — Soft Maples. 



* Petals present nearly or quite equalling the almost distinct sepals. 

 A. riibrum, L. (Red or Scarlet Maple.) A tree mostly of small or medium size, but 

 sometimes becoming 3 feet or more in diameter, and 80 to 100 feet in height : bark at leno-th 

 rather thick and deeply fissured, dark gray ; the branchlets grayish brown, nearly or quite 

 glabrous : leaves 3-5-lobed, usually rather small, cordate with a narrow sinus, or with 

 rounded base, soon glabrate and bright green above, very pale and often with a somewhat 

 persistent tomentum beneath ; lobes triangular-ovate, acute or acuminate, rather evenly 

 serrate, seldom incised: flowers usually red, rarely (in the formal var. pallid iflorum, Pax) 

 dull oryellowisli green, pedicellate, but in anthesis aggregated in close subcapitate umbels; 

 these terminal on short branchlets or sessile in the upper axils of the last year's leaves : 

 petals narrower than sepals : ovary nearly or quite glabrous ; fruit long-pedicelled, pendu- 

 lous, glabrous, usually red ; carpels seldom exceeding an inch in length ; wings when imma- 

 ture subparallel, later diverging at an acute or right angle. — Spec. ii. 10.5.5 ; Ehrh. Beitr. 

 iv. 23 ; Schmidt, Oestr. Baum. i. 10, t. 6; Michx. f. Hist. Arb. Am. ii. 210, t. 14; Wats. 

 Dendr. Brit. ii. t. 169 ; Emerson, Trees & Shrubs Mass. ed. 2, ii. 551, with plate; Sargent, 

 Silv. ii. 107, t. 94; Gray, PI. For. Trees N. A. t. 20. 1 A. (jlaucum, Marsh. Arb. 2. 

 ■? A. Carol inianum, Walt. Car. 251. A. coccineum, Michx. f. 1. c. 203. A. microphi/llum, & 

 A. semi-orhiculatum, Pax in Engl. Jahrb. vii. 180, 181 (both treated as subspecies by Wes- 

 mael, 1. c. 29), are founded on trivial differences chiefly of the very variable foliage. Vars. 

 eurubriim (typical), sanguineum, & clausum, Pax, 1. c. 181, 182, have scarcely a formal value. 

 — Rich woodland, Newfoundlaml to Central Florida and Louisiana, northwest to Winnipc"-, 

 E. Dakota (ace. to Sargent), and Nebraska. A species of neat and attractive appear- 

 ance at all seasons but in early autumn becoming (especially in the Eastern States) very 

 conspicuous by its liright scarlet foliage. Sterile specimens of a noteworthy form with ovate- 

 lanceolate serrate but scarcely lobed leaves, entire at the base, has been collected in Florida 

 by Chapman. Toward the south and .southwest the species pa.sses into 



Var. Drummondii, Torr. & Gray. Leaves rather large for the species (often 4 to 

 5 inches in length and breailth) and rather more deeply 3-lobed, densely tomentose beneath: 

 fruit decidedly larger than in the typical form ; wings ^ to 1|^ or (ace. to Sargent) even 2 

 to 2i inches in length. — Fl. i. 684 (Drummondii parenthetical but apparently used as a 

 varietal name) ; Sargent, U. S. 10th Census, ix. 50, & Silv. ii. 109, t. 95. A. Drummondii 

 Hook. & Arn. Jour. Bot. i. 200; Nutt. Sylv. ii. 83, t. 70. A. rubrum, var. y, Hook. & 

 Arn. 1. c. 199. '^ A. ruhrum, var. tomentosum, Pax in Engl. Jahrb. vii. 182. — Louisiana 

 where first collected by Drummond, and Texas, north to Missouri, where leaves become 



