194 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



place in our estimation as a strikingly handsome 

 American tree. But some of its near relatives are 

 almost as beautiful ; not the least among these is the 

 Mountain Maple, mountain maple, which oftener takes 

 Acer spicatum. the f orm of a tall shrub than it does 

 that of a small tree. Its leaves are downy beneath ; 

 they are divided into three parts (rarely five), and 

 the teeth are rather coarse ; in autumn they turn a 

 bright, deep, ruddy orange or red. Its spikelike 

 clusters of greenish-yellow flowers appear in June. 

 The seeds, with narrow wings diverging at an obtuse 

 angle, are often a lovely tone of pale terra-cotta pink ; 

 finally they turn red. The mountain maple is com- 

 mon in the rich woods of the North, and among the 

 mountains as far south as northern Georgia. It is 

 most frequently found by shady roadsides or the 

 banks of streamlets ; its brown branches rarely rise 

 over fifteen feet high, and as they have a common 

 habit of growing in clumps, this maple is properly 

 classed as a shrub ; sometimes, however, it reaches 

 a height of from 25 to 30 feet. 



The mountain maple may be distinguished from 

 a young red maple by the erect flower clusters, and 

 the undeveloped condition of the leaves, if the time is 

 June ; later, by the three or five-divisioned leaves 

 of soft texture and reflex curves, and also by the ab- 

 sence of the red color which characterizes the twigs 



