Acer 6']'] 



Timber 



All accounts agree in stating that the timber is softer, lighter, and weaker than 

 that of the red or sugar maples, and in consequence is only used as an inferior 

 substitute for these or other similar woods. 



The sap of the silver maple is sometimes used to produce sugar in places where 

 the sugat maple is not found, and Michaux says that though the quantity is only 

 halt as much, yet the unrefined sugar is whiter and more agreeable to the taste 

 than common maple sugar. (H. J. E.) 



ACER SACCHARUM, Sugar Maple 



Acer saccharum,^ Marshall, Arbust. Am. 4 (1785); Sargent, Trees N. Amer. 632 (1905); Trelease, 



Missouri Bot. Garden Report, v. 88 (1894). 

 Acer saccharinum, Wangenheim, Nordam. Holz. 26 (1787) (Not Linnaeus); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. 



Brit. i. 411 (1838). 

 Acer barbatum, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 252 (1803); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. ii. 97, t. 90 (1892). 



A tree attaining in America 1 20 feet in height and 1 2 feet in girth. Bark 

 grey and smooth on young stems, deeply furrowed on old trunks. Young branchlets 

 glabrous, becoming brown in their first summer. Leaves (Plate 206, Fig. 12), 

 about 5 inches long by 6 inches wide, usually five-, rarely three-lobed, cordate at 

 the base ; lobes triangular, acuminate, with one or two pairs of sinuate teeth ; 

 sinuses rounded and shallow, reaching about one-third the length of the blade ; 

 margin non-ciliate ; upper surface dark green, glabrous ; lower surface pale, dull, 

 with pubescent tufts in the primary and secondary axils, elsewhere either glabrous 

 or more or less pubescent ; petiole without milky sap. Leafy stipules,^ with bases 

 adnate to the petiole, are occasionally developed in var. nigra of this species. 



Flowers, monoecious or dioecious, appearing with the leaves, arising from 

 terminal leaf-buds and from lateral leafless buds, in nearly sessile corymbs, greenish- 

 yellow ; pedicels long, thread-like, pubescent ; petals absent ; ovary with long 

 scattered hairs. Fruit, ripening in autumn, glabrous ; keys about an inch long ; 

 wings broad, thin, usually divergent. 



This species in the form of the foliage somewhat resembles the Norway maple ; 

 but is readily distinguishable by the pale colour of the leaves beneath, and the 

 absence of milky sap in the petioles. In winter, the buds are conical, sharp-pointed, 

 and pubescent, showing externally 8 to 14 scales; lateral buds shortly stalked; 

 opposite pairs of leaf-scars not united around the stem, their upper margins fringed 

 with yellowish hairs. 



' This is the name now adopted by Sargent, by Sudworth, Check List of Forest Trees of U.S. 91 (1898), and by other 

 American botanists and foresters. Acer saccharimtm, Wangenheim, is a later name, and must be dropped, especially as Acer 

 scucharinum , Linnaius, is now commonly used in America for another species, the silver maple. 



' Gray, Amer. Naturalist, vi. 767 (1872), and vii. 422 (1873) ; and Sargent, Garden and Forest, iv. 148 f. 27 (1891). 



