150 ACERINE^ 



conspicuous and ornamental portion of the forest trees. Lyell, who remarks 

 on some Maples growing at Mount Washington, 4,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea, says that the autumnal tints of these trees are most beautiful, 

 varying in every colour from orange to pale yellow, and from bright scarlet 

 to a rich purple hue. Several species have a sugary sap, and the Sugar 

 Maple (Ace7- saccharinum) of North America produces an abundance of sugar ; 

 while both sugar and treacle are also obtained in a somewhat lesser quantity 

 from the Red Maple (Acer rubrum), which grows in the swamps of Pennsyl- 

 vania. Maple sugar is often seen in this country, in large flat pieces, 

 resembling in appearance the substance called candied horehound. It is an 

 important article of manufacture, and an ordinary tree yields from fifteen to 

 thirty gallons of sap, from which from two to four pounds of sugar may be 

 procured, the tree remaining uninjured by the incisions made in it, and 

 continuing to furnish its produce for forty years. The Red Maple is adorned 

 with handsome scarlet flowers, which expand long before the leaves appear. 

 Its bark also yields a good deep blue colour for the dyer, and an excellent 

 ink is made from it. 



Maple [Acer). — Calyx 5-clef t ; petals 5 ; capsules 2, each furnished 

 with a long wing. Name from the Celtic Ac, a. point, on account of the 

 hardness of the wood, which was formerly used for spears, and other sharp- 

 pointed instruments. 



Maple {Acer). 



1. Common Maple {A. campMre). — Leaves 5-lobed; lobes somewhat 

 blunt, scarcely cut ; clusters of flowers erect. This Maple is a picturesque 

 little tree, very common in our woods and hedges, its leaves in spring being 

 of the most delicate green. In the autumn none of our native trees exhibits 

 a brighter foliage, which is first of a dull ochrey yellow, then of deeper hue, 

 and lastly of an orange rich enough to remind us of the Maples of America, 

 whose brilliance is so often described by travellers. The hues of the 

 American species, however, tint the leaves in an earlier stage of their progress, 

 and are not, as with ours, a sign that decay is making rapid progress, and 

 that before some other trees have lost a leaf, these will all be strewed on the 

 earth. The author received from America some very beautiful wreaths, 

 made on paper, of the dried leaves of the Maple and sumach ; the former 

 wearing rich hues of green, red, and purple ; the latter glowing in the 

 scarlet tints of the brightest coral. They were preserved in memory of a 

 friend, and years passed over and left their brightness untouched. Seeing 

 that the leaves of our Maple were of golden yellow, and of some of our 

 cherry-trees of richest crimson and orange, the author dried these leaves, and 

 formed a similar picture ; but in a few months their beauty was lessened, and 

 almost all their brightness finally passed away. Our Common Maple has its 

 foliage often thickly dotted with little red prominences, not so large as the 

 head of a pin, but by their number giving to all the leaves of a branch a red 

 appearance. This is caused by the puncture of an insect, which finds in its 

 tissues a nidus for its young. The bark of the tree is very rugged, and its 

 pretty upright blossom of delicate green appears in April and May, with 

 the catkins of the hazel, and the gold and silvery balls of the willows, and 



