190 THE ROCK MAPLE. 



The Zeaves grow opposite, in pairs, on long, slender 

 petioles, palmi-veined and reticulated. The blade is as broad 

 as long, somewhat cordate at base, extended luith the veins 

 into 5 or 7 pointed lobes,* each bearing a few large teeth, and 

 with rounded intervals between; smooth above, a little downy 

 and pale-glaucous beneath. In the autumn, they undergo a 

 wonderful change of color. From a bright green, of various 

 shades in different trees, they become tinted and stained 

 with the most brilliant hues — yellow, orange, scarlet, crim- 

 son, assuming often the very colors of flame, to the sudden 

 alarm of the unwary. f (See illustrations, p. 295.) 



The jFio?t^ers appear in April and May, together with 

 the expanding leaves, proceeding from buds clustered at and 

 near the end of the branchlets. They are yellowish green in 

 color, in umbel-like corymbs, pendulous on slender, thread- 

 like, downy pedicels about 2' long. There is a bell-shaped, 

 fringed calyx with 8 or 10 stamens within, and no petals. 

 In respect to fruit, the flowers are of two kinds. In the 



* That infinite variety of beautiful and graceful forms for which the leaf is dis- 

 tinguished, becomes intelligible only when viewed in connection with its venation. 

 Since it is through the veins alone that nutriment is conveyed for the development 

 and extension of the tissue, it follows that there will be the greatest extension of out- 

 line in the direction of the largest veins. Pinni-veined leaves, wherein the midvein 

 is the largest and all the rest side-branches, will generally be longer than wide, i. e., 

 lanceolate, ovate, oval, oblong, oblanceolate, etc. Palmi-veined leaves, wherein there 

 are several chief veins running from the base of the blade to the margin, will gen- 

 erally be broad in outline— as. broadly ovate, or orbicular, or reniform ; and often 

 palmately trilobate, 5-lobed, 7-lobed, according to the number of veins. When the 

 veinlets are comparatively weak, there may be a deficiency of tissue between the veins, 

 causing the leaf to become either deeply lobed, or parted, or even divided up into 

 several or many leaflets ; in short, it thus becomes a compound leaf, either pinnately 

 or palmately compound. Thus the student will notice with surprise that the general 

 venation of a compound leaf differs in no wise from that of its corresponding simple 

 leaf. 



t The richest and most diverse hues that nature can produce by the separation and 

 blending of all the prismatic colors, meet us in every grove, hill-side, and mountain. 

 Red of every shade, from crimson to cherry ; yellow, from bright sulphur to orange ; 

 brown, from clove-brown to liver-brown ; and green, from grass-green to oil-green, 

 stand forth in distinct spots, yet all mingled in fantastic proportions, clothing the 

 landscape witli an almost dazzling brilliancy, especially when lighted up by the mel- 

 low rays of an October mn,— Hitchcock, 



