198 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



Sugar or Rock Maple The 8U S ar 0r r0ck ma P le is the 

 Acer saccharinum. grandest member of the family. It 

 Acer saccharum. sometimes reaches a height of from 

 100 to 120 feet. Its leaf is bold, and lacking in fine 

 modeling, but that in no wise detracts 

 from the symmetrical beauty of the 

 dignified tree. The leaves generally 

 have five divisions, the notches be- 

 tween which are very rounded ; the teeth 

 if they can be called such, so very 

 few and coarse are they have blunt 

 points. Compared with its " striped " 

 relative, the sugar maple is a tree 



Sugar-Maple Seed. with f lia e f a decidedly rugged 



character. 

 The greenish-yellow flowers of this maple droop 

 from very slender, hairy stems ; they come in April 

 or May, while the leaves are expanding. The wings 

 of the seeds are about an inch long, and diverge 

 something less than at a right angle; they are usu- 

 ally of a beautiful, pale yellow-green ; the seed is 

 ripe in September. The trunk is most frequently 

 divided eight or ten feet from the ground into three 

 or four stout, perpendicular branches. The leaf is 

 smooth, dark green, and has an eggshell gloss; in 

 the autumn it regularly turns a clear straw yellow 

 on some trees, and a variety of toned light reds on 



