152 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



being deeply furrowed. An old name for the maple is 

 the maser-tree, as from its wood were made the maser- 

 bowls that were so prized in the middle ages. The wood 

 is beautifully veined and takes a fine polish, and the 

 collection of fine pieces of it made into tables, cabinets, and 

 the like, was one of the hobbies of the wealthy connoisseurs 

 of ancient Rome. 



The foliage is throughout the Summer of a somewhat 

 sombre green, but in the Autumn turns to a deep, clear, 

 golden-yellow colour, that makes the maples, either in 

 wood or hedgerow, particularly in evidence. It will be 

 recalled that the glory of the Canadian " Fall " is largely 

 owing to the different kinds of Maples, and especially to 

 the Scarlet Maple, ^Acer rubrm^i. 



The leaves of the maple are in pairs, and very 

 elegant in form ; five-lobed, something like those of the 

 Sycamore, but much smaller, and having much deeper 

 indentations between the leaves. From the beauty of 

 form of the leaves, and the quaint charm of the winged 

 fruits, the Maple was one of the favourite subjects of the 

 14th Century carvers, and examples of its decorative use 

 may be freely found in the capitals and other ornate 

 features of the architecture of that date. The leaves are 

 sometimes found thickly covered with little red excrescences, 

 the work of a mite that burrows into the tissue of the 

 leaf with this result. 



The flowers are very small, greenish in colour, and 

 borne in erect clusters. Some of the blossoms in these 

 clusters are bi-sexual, while others are uni-sexual, staminate 

 or pistillate alone. They may be found in the early 

 Summer. The fruits are ripe in October, when they turn 



