SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. SAPINDACE.2:. 
90 
are covered with long pale hairs, and the wings are an inch and a half in length, half an inch in breadth, 
slightly divergent, and glabrous with the exception of a few hairs on the thickened edge. The seed 1s 
a quarter of an inch long, with a dark claret-colored rugose pitted coat and foliaceous cotyledons. 
Acer macrophyllum inhabits the coast of Alaska south of latiude 55° north; it occurs on the 
islands and coast of British Columbia, is widely and generally distributed through Washington and 
Oregon west of the Cascade Mountains, and spreads south along the coast ranges and the western slope 
of the Sierra Nevada of California to the San Bernardino Mountains and to Hot Spring valley, San 
Diego County, rarely extending more than four thousand feet above the level of the sea. It grows 
along the banks of streams or on rich bottom-lands, or sometimes in California on the rocky slopes 
of mountain valleys, reaching its greatest size in the humid climate and rich soil of the bottom-lands 
of southern Oregon, where, with the Laurel and the Alder, it abounds in extensive and beautiful forests, 
sending up tall stout stems clothed with moss. In California it is usually much smaller, especially 
in the coast ranges, often occurring as an isolated specimen, when it forms a low wide-branched round- 
headed tree. 
The wood of Acer macrophyllum is light, soft, and not very strong ; it is close-grained, and can 
be easily worked and given a beautiful polish. It is rich brown tinged with red, with thick lighter 
colored or often nearly white sapwood composed of sixty or eighty layers of annual growth, and many 
thin medullary rays. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.4909, a cubic foot weighing 
30.59 pounds. The grain is often beautifully curled and contorted, and sometimes forms concentric 
rings similar to those found in the wood of the Sugar Maple. It is the most valuable wood produced 
by any deciduous tree of the forests of western North America, and in Washington and Oregon is 
largely used for the interior finish of buildings, for furniture, and for axe and broom handles.’ 
Acer macrophyllum was discovered on the northwest coast late in the last century by Archibald 
Menzies,” and a few years later was observed near the cascades of the Columbia River by the members of 
the first transcontinental exploring expedition under Lewis and Clark. It is said to have been intro- 
duced into England in 1812.2 Acer macrophyllwm flourishes in the temperate parts of Europe, where 
it has long flowered and ripened its fruit, and where it forms a low round-headed tree remarkable for 
the size and beauty of its leaves, which are larger than those of any other Maple. In eastern America, 
where it is very rarely cultivated, it is hardy as far north as eastern Pennsylvania at least, and may be 
expected in sheltered situations to withstand the climate of southern New England. 
1 Sugar of good quality has, according to Greene (Fl. Francis. i. 
76), been made in the mountains of California from Acer macro- 
phyllum ; and the young twigs when cut exude a milky juice. 
2 Archibald Menzies (1754-1842) was born at Weem in the 
county of Perth, Scotland, and was early attached to the Botanic 
Garden of Edinburgh, of which his brother William was afterwards 
curator. Through the assistance of Dr. Hope, the professor of bot- 
any in the University, he was enabled to obtain the degree of M. D. 
He then settled at Caernarvon, but soon entered the navy as assist- 
ant-surgeon on board the Nonsuch, and was present at the victory 
obtained by Rodney over the Comte de Grasse in April, 1782. In 
1786 he joined as surgeon a vessel sent by a commercial firm on a 
voyage of discovery to the northwest coast of America. During this 
voyage Menzies visited Staten Island, where he appears to have 
remained for some time, the Sandwich Islands and China, and the 
northwest coast of America, returning to England in 1789. Men- 
zies was appointed the following year naturalist to Captain Vancou- 
ver, whom he accompanied on his celebrated voyage of discovery, 
during which he visited King George’s Sound on the coast of New 
Holland, New Zealand, the Sandwich Islands, and the northwest 
coast of America, returning to England in 1795. Subsequently he 
served in the West Indies as a naval surgeon, but early in the cen- 
tury quitted the sea and established himself as a physician in Lon- 
don. Menzies made large collections of natural objects, especially 
in botany, and first introduced into Europe the Chilian Araucaria. 
Menziesia, a genus of delicate shrubs belonging to the Heath family 
and represented by several species of North America and of eastern 
and northeastern Asia, commemorates his name. 
8 Loudon, Arb. Brit. i. 408, f. 117, 118, t. 28. 
