SILVER MAPLE; SOFT MAPLE (Acer saccharimim, Linn.). 

 50 to 120 feet. Large, stout-trunked tree with long, spreading 

 limbs, drooping at ends. Quick-growing, easily broken by 

 wind and ice. Bark roughly scaly, brownish red, furrowed; 

 twigs red. Wood hard, close-grained, brittle, easy to work, 

 used for fuel and flooring and cheap furniture. Sap sometimes 

 boiled for sugar. Leaves deeply 3-cleft, with 2 small lobes 

 near truncate or heart-shaped base ; margin doubly saw-toothed ; 

 4 to 7 inches long, smooth, thin, pale green, white beneath, 

 fuzzy along veins; stems long. Flowers small, in sessile, axil- 

 lary clusters, before leaves, greenish yellow, without petals, 

 monoecious or dioecious, March- April. Fruit paired, winged 

 keys, 2 to 3 inches long, pubescent until ripe, short-stemmed, 

 wind-scattered in late May. Dist.: Rich, moist soil, New- 

 foundland to Dakota, south to Florida and Oklahoma. Rare 

 on Atlantic seaboard. Much planted for shade and pro- 

 tection on prairies, but inferior to ether species. 



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