SILVER MAPLE 



remain comparatively untouched, although the willows are 

 green and the apple trees like summer ; the sword has fallen 

 and the end has come. Only the rear guard will linger 

 along the line, beautiful in their isolation, pathetic in their 

 loneliness. 



SILVER MAPLE. SOFT MAPLE. WHITE MAPLE. 



Acer saccharinum. Acer dasycdrpum. 



A large tree, ninety to one hundred feet in height with a trunk 

 which soon divides into three or four stout, upright, secondary stems, 

 forming a wide spreading head with drooping branches. Found 

 abundantly throughout the valley of the Mississippi where it is one of 

 the largest and most common of river trees ; rare along the Atlantic 

 coast. Grows rapidly. Sap produces sugar. 



Bark. Light gray, smooth until the tree is of considerable size. 

 On old trees reddish brown, more or less furrowed, the surface sep- 

 arating into large loose scales. Branchlets at first pale green, later 

 dark green, finally pale chestnut brown, smooth, shining, at last 

 reddish gray. 



Wood. Cream, faintly tinged with brown ; hard, strong, close- 

 grained, rather brittle. Used in cabinet work. Sp. gr., 0.5269; 

 weight of cu. ft., 32.84. 



Winter Buds. Flower buds aggregated, obtuse, red. Leaf buds 

 one-fourth an inch long, red ; inner scales enlarge when spring 

 growth begins, become green or yellow and an inch long before they 

 fall. 



Leaves. Opposite, simple, five to seven inches long, rather less 

 in breadth. Palmately five-lobed with narrow acute sinuses and 

 acute divisions. The middle lobe is often three-lobed. Base heart- 

 shaped or truncate ; margin coarsely serrate or toothed. Primary 

 veins conspicuous. They come out of the bud pale green and 

 downy, when full grown are bright pale green above, silvery white 

 beneath. In autumn they turn pale yellow. Petioles long, slender, 

 red, drooping. 



Flowers. March, April. Polygamo-moncecious or dioecious. 

 Before the leaves, which do not appear until fruit is nearly grown. 

 Greenish yellow, sessile on last year's wood ; borne in sessile axillary 

 fasicles. 



Calyx. Campanulate, slightly five-lobed, downy, long and nar- 

 row in the sterile, short and broad in the fertile flowers. 



Corolla .Wanting. 



73 



