STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 21 



however, by Anderson ' as a creeper which produces a kind of prickly gourd about the 

 size of a Swede turnip and of delicious flavor. It constitutes for several months of the 

 year the chief food of the natives, and the seeds are dried and preserved for winter 

 consiimption* 



Acer dasycarpum Ehrh. Sapindaceae. silver maple, soft maple, white maple. 



North America. The sap will make sugar of good quality but less in quantity than 

 the sugar maple. ^ Sugar is made from this species, says Loudon,' in districts where the 

 tree abounds, but the produce is not above half that obtained from the sap of the sugar 

 maple. 



A. platanoides Linn. Norway maple. 



Eiu-ope and the Orient. From the sap, sugar has been made in Norway, Sweden 

 and in Lithuania.'' 

 A. pseudo-platanus Linn, mock plane, sycamore maple. 



Europe and the Orient. In England, children suck the wings of the growing keys 

 for the sake of obtaining the sweet exudation that is upon them.^ In the western High- 

 lands and some parts of the Continent, the sap is fermented into wine, the trees being 

 first tapped when just coming into leaf.' From the sap, sugar may be made but not in 

 remunerative quantities.^ 



A. rubrum Linn, red maple, swamp maple. 



North America. The French Canadians make sugar from the sap which they call 

 plaine, but the product is not more than half that obtained from the sugar maple.* In 

 Maine, sugar is often made from the sap. 

 A. saccharinum Wangenh. rock maple, sugar maple. 



North America. This large, handsome tree must be included among cultivated food 

 plants, as in some sections of New England groves are protected and transplanted for the 

 use of the tree to furnish sugar. The tree is found from 48 north in Canada, to the 

 mountains in Georgia and from Nova Scotia to Arkansas and the Rocky Mountains. 

 The sap from the trees growing in maple orchards may give as an average one pound of 

 sugar to four gallons of sap, and a single tree may furnish four or five pounds, although 

 extreme jields have been put as high as thirty-three pounds from a single tree. The 

 manufacttu-e of sugar from the sap of the maple was known to the Indians, for Jefferys, ' 

 1760, saj^ that in Canada " this tree affords great quantities of a cooling and wholesome 

 liquor from which they make a sort of sugar," and Jonathan Carver,'" in 1784, says the 



' Anderson Lake N garni 16. 1856. 



Hough, F. B. Elem. For. 237, 238. 1882. 



Loudon, J. C. Arb. Frut. Brit. 1:424. 1854 

 Loudon, y. C. Arb. Frut. Brit. 1:410. 1854. 

 Loudon, J. C. Arb. Frut. Brit. 1:41s. 1854. 



Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. 63. 1862. 

 ' Johns, C. A. Treas. Bot. 1:8. 1870. 



Loudon, J. C. Arb. Frut. Brit. 1:427. 1854. 

 Jefferys, T. Nat. Hist. Amer. 41. 1760. 



"Carver, J. Travs. No. Amer. 496. 1778. 



