ACERACE.E MAPLE FAMILY 



STRIPED MAPLE. MOOSEWOOD 



Acer pennsylvdnictim. 



A small tree, thirty or forty feet high, with short trunk, slender 

 upright branches ; often much smaller and scrubby. Loves the 

 shade and forms much of the undergrowth of the forests of New 

 England and lower Canada. Roots fibrous. 



Bark. Reddish brown, marked longitudinally with broad pale 

 stripes, and roughened with numerous, horizontal, oblong excres- 

 cences. The branchlets are pale greenish yellow ; later, reddish 

 brown and finally striped like the trunk. 



Winter Buds. Red. The terminal bud when it contains an in- 

 florescence is half an inch long. Axillary buds much shorter. 

 Scales enlarge when spring growth begins ; the inner scales be- 

 come an inch and a half to two inches long, changing to yellow or 

 rose before they fall. 



Wood. Pale brown, sapwood still paler; light, soft, close- 

 grained. Sp. gr., 0.5299; weight of cu. ft., 33.02 Ibs. 



Leaves. Opposite, simple, five to six inches long, palmately 

 three-nerved, rounded or cordate at the base, doubly serrate, three- 

 lobed at the apex, the short lobes contracted into tapering serrate 

 points. They come out of the bua thin, pnle rose color, and 

 downy ; when full grown are smooth, except some russet hairs at the 

 axils of the nerves, bright green above, paler beneath. In autumn 

 they turn a clear bright yellow. Petiole long, grooved, with en- 

 larged base. 



Flowers. May, when leaves are nearly grown, polygamo-monoe- 

 cious, yellow. Borne in slender, drooping, long-stemmed racemes ; 

 staminate and pistillate flowers usually in different racemes. Ped- 

 icels thread-like. 



Calyx. Five-parted, lobes linear or obovate. Disk annular. 



Corolla. Petals five, inserted on the base of the disk, obovate, as 

 long as the sepals, bright yellow, imbricate in bud. 



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