96 ACER ERIOCARPUM. 
scattered, and leaves an open passage for the sunbeams. According to Dr. 
Hooker, the young leaves, and germs, are very downy ; but the old leaves, and 
perfect fruit, are glabrous. 
Geography aiid History. The banks of the river Sorel, in Lower Canada, in 
latitude forty-five degrees, may be considered as the northern, and those of the 
tributaries of the Penobscot, in the state of Maine, as the eastern limit of the Acer 
eriocarpum. But, like many other trees, it is stunted by the rigorous winters of 
these latitudes, and never reaches the size which it attains a few degrees farther 
south. It is found on the banks of all the rivers which flow from the Alleghanies to 
the ocean ; though it is less common along those which water the southern parts of 
the Carolinas and Georgia. In no part of the United States is it more multiplied 
than in the country west of the mountains, and nowhere is its vegetation more 
luxuriant than on the banks of the Ohio, and on those of the streams which flow 
into it. There, sometimes alone, and at others mingled with the willow, which 
is also found along all these waters, it contributes singularly, by its magnificent 
foliage, to the embellishment of the scene. "The brilliant white of the leaves 
beneath, forms a striking contrast with the bright-green above, and the alternate 
reflection of the two surfaces in the water, heightens the beauty of this wonder- 
ful moving mirror, and aids in forming an enchanting picture; which," says 
Michaux, " during my long excursions in a canoe in these regions of solitude and 
silence, I contemplated with unwearied admiration." " Beginning at Pittsburg," 
continues he, " and even some miles above the junction of the Alleghany and 
Monongahela Rivers, white maples, with short trunks, twelve or fifteen feet in 
circumference, are continually to be met with at short distances." 
The Acer eriocarpum was introduced into England by Sir Charles Wagner, 
in 1725, and has since been in general cultivation throughout Europe, for orna- 
ment. 
The largest tree of this species in the neighbourhood of London, is at Kew, 
where, in twenty-five years after planting, it had attained the height of fifty 
feet. At Trentham, in Staffordshire, there is another tree mentioned by Loudon, 
of the same height. 
At Pfauen Insel, in Prussia, there is an Acer eriocarpum, which, at the age of 
forty years, had attained the height of fifty feet. And another is recorded, 
as growing in the garden of Christianholme, near Lolland, in Sweden, of the 
height of forty feet. And another of still more rapid growth, at Niedzwiedz, in 
Poland, which had attained the height of thirty-six feet in twenty years. 
Insects. The Acer eriocarpum is chiefly preyed upon by the larva3 of the 
Apatela americana, of Harris, and by those of several species of the Geome- 
tridse, all of which feed with more or less avidity on the leaves of various other 
maples, the elm, chesnut, and probably many other trees. 
Soil, Situation, fyc. In its natural habitat, the Acer eriocarpum is found in a 
sandy loam, on the banks of such rivers only as have limpid waters, with a 
gravelly bed ; and it is seldom, if ever, found in swamps and other wet grounds 
enclosed in forests, where the soil is black and miry. When cultivated, this tree 
requires a deep, free soil, and more moisture than most of the other species. 
Though it will not grow in swamps, yet it attains its greatest dimensions on the 
alluvial banks of rivers which are occasionally inundated. It ripens its seeds, 
both in Europe and in the United States, by midsummer, or earlier ; and if 
these are immediately sown, they come up, and produce plants, which are eight 
or ten inches high, by the succeeding autumn. 
Properties and Uses. The wood of the Acer eriocarpum is very white when 
newly cut, and of a fine texture; but it is softer and lighter than that of any 
other maple in the United States ; and from the want of strength and durability 
it is little used. When dry, it weighs thirty-eight pounds to a cubic foot, and 
