SAPINDACES. 109 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
Acer rubrum, var. Drummondii,! a well-marked variety of the Red Maple, is common in the deep 
river-swamps of southern Arkansas, eastern Texas, and western Louisiana, and occurs occasionally in the 
other Gulf states and in southern Georgia. The leaves are three-lobed with short broad lobes, usually 
rounded, or sometimes a little cordate at the base, which is entire or slightly and remotely crenulate- 
toothed. The lower surface is covered, as are the young shoots and petioles, with thick white tomen- 
tum. The fruit, which ripens late in March or in April, is bright scarlet with large convergent wings 
two or two and a half inches long and a half to three quarters of an inch broad. 
The Red Maple, as it inhabited swamps in the immediate neighborhood of the coast, attracted the 
attention of early travelers in America; it was carried to England as early as 1656, probably by the 
younger Tradescant,’ in whose garden near London it was growing in that year. The first description, 
drawn from Tradescant’s cultivated trees, was published by Plukenet‘ in 1691. It has always been a 
favorite tree in cultivation in the United States and in Europe, and a number of seminal varieties® have 
The Red Maple, although it is found 
only in low wet ground which is often submerged during a large part of the year, grows as rapidly and 
appeared. None of these are particularly distinct or valuable. 
to as large a size when planted in rich well-drained upland soil as it does in its native swamps; and its 
excellent habit, the beauty of its leaves in summer and in autumn, the brilliancy of its fruit, and its 
freedom from disease, make it one of the most desirable of the trees of eastern America to plant for 
ornament where sufficient space can be allowed for its full development.‘ 
1 Acer rubrum, var. Drummondii, Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 
10th Census U. S. ix. 50. 
A. Drummondii, Hooker & Arnott, Jour. Bot. i. 199. — Nuttall, 
Sylva, ii. 83, t. 70. 
2 This tree in some extreme forms is certainly very distinct, but 
it seems to pass gradually by many intermediate forms found in 
the eastern Gulf states into the typical Red Maple. 
destitute of leaves and covered in the early spring with intensely 
scarlet fruit are very beautiful, especially when they are surrounded 
by the broad-leaved evergreen Bays with which the Red Maple is 
usually associated in the Gulf states. 
8 See i. 20. 
4 Acer Virginianum folio majore subtus argenteo, supra viridi splen- 
dente, Phyt. t. 2, f. 4; Alm. Bot. 7. — Catesby, Nat. Hist. Car. i. 62, 
t. 62. 
Large trees 
Acer Virginianum folio subtus incano flosculis ex viridi rubentibus, 
Hermann, Parad. Bat. i. t. 1.— Miller, Dict. Icon. i. 6, t. 8, f. 2. 
Acer folio palmato-angulato flore fere apetalo sessili fructu peduncu- 
lato corymboso, Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 41. — Colden, Cat. 85. 
Acer foliis quinquelobis subdentatis subtus glaucis, floribus pedun- 
culatis simplicissimis rare aggregatis dioicis, Trew, Pl. Ehret, 47, 
t. 85. 
5 Nicholson, Gard. Chron. n. ser. xv. 172. 
6 The Red Maple and other forest trees, especially the Canoe 
Birch, the Red Oak, and the Mountain Ash, are sometimes de- 
stroyed in considerable numbers in northern New England by the 
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker (Sphyrapicus varius, Baird), who drills 
into the trunk for the purpose of drinking the sweet sap. (Frank 
Bolles, Garden and Forest, iv. 177.) 
