SUGAR MAPLE. S5 
The largest recorded tree of this species, in Europe, is at Worlitz, in Saxony. 
At the expiration of sixty years after being planted, it was fifty feet high. 
The largest sugar maple in the neighbourhood of London, is at Purser's Cross, 
which, in 1835, had attained the height of forty-five feet. 
Several large trees of this species are found on Goat Island, at the falls of Ni- 
agara ; but they are far inferior in size to myriads of others, in Canada, New 
England, and other parts of America. 
Soil, Situation, fyc. The natural habitat of the Acer saccharin um is the steep 
and shady banks of rivers, which rise in mountainous regions, and in all elevated 
situations, where the soil is cold and humid, free, deep, and fertile, and not sur- 
charged with moisture. When cultivated, the same soil is recommended as in 
the Acer platanoides ; but as it is less hardy, the situation should be more shel- 
tered. In Europe, it is always propagated by seeds, where its rate of growth 
varies from one to four feet per annum. In the United States it is either propa- 
gated from seeds, in nurseries, or is transplanted from the woods or fields, to the 
site where it is intended to remain. The age of this tree in America does not 
usually exceed two hundred years. 
Insects. Few insects or their larvae seem to feed upon the leaves of the sugar 
maple, with the exception of the Apatela americana, described by Dr. Harris, in 
his "Report on the Insects of Massachusetts injurious to Vegetation," and also 
figured and described in Smith and Abbot's " Insects of Georgia," under the 
name of Phalcena aceris. The caterpillar of this insect eats the leaves of the 
various kinds of maple, as well as those of the elm and chesnut. They commence 
spinning in October or November, and come out from their webs or cocoons 
from April to July. The moths fly only in the night. But this fine tree suffers 
much from the attacks of the borers or larvae of the Clytus speciosus, denoted by 
the accompanying figure. This insect is accurately 
described and figured in Say's " American Entomol- 
ogy;" and an account of its habits is given by Rev. 
L. W. Leonard, of Dublin, New Hampshire, in Har- 
ris' " Report." He discovered the insect in the beetle 
state, under the loosened bark of one of the trees, and 
traced the recent track of the larva, three inches into 
the solid wood. Dr. Harris says, "It is the largest 
known species of Clytus, being from nine to eleven- 
tenths of an inch in length, and three to four-tenths 
in breadth. It lays its eggs on the trunk of the maple 
in July and August. The grubs burrow into the 
bark as soon as they are hatched, and are thus protected during the winter. In 
spring, they penetrate deeper, and form, in the course of the summer, long and 
winding galleries in the wood, up and down the trunk. In order to check 
their devastations, they should be sought for in the spring, when they will rea- 
dily be detected by the saw-dust that they cast out of their burrows ; and, by a 
judicious use of a knife and stiff wire, they may be cut out, or destroyed before 
they have gone deeply into the wood." 
Properties and Uses. The wood of the Acer saccharinum, when newly cut, 
is white, but after being wrought and exposed for some time to the light, it takes 
a rosy tinge. Its grain is fine and close, and when polished, its lustre is silky. 
It is very strong and heavy, but wants the property of durability, for which the 
English and American white oaks are so highly esteemed. The northern wood, 
when dry, weighs forty-six pounds to a cubic foot, but that grown south, weighs 
much less. When cut, and properly dried, it makes excellent fuel, which is 
equally esteemed by some, for that purpose, with the oak and hickory. When 
exposed to the alternations of moisture and dryness, it soon decays, and for this 
