The Maples 



in earliest spring before the leaves; on same or different trees. 

 Fruit, May, smooth, paired samaras, i inch long; wings divergent, 

 hung on slender pedicels, 3 to 4 inches long, seed germinating 

 immediately; rarely the next spring. Preferred habitat, swampy 

 ground, borders of streams. Distrihuiion, Eastern States to 

 Wisconsin, Nebraska and Texas. Most common in lower Miss- 

 issippi Valley. Uses: Valuable ornamental and shade tree. 

 Wood used for gun stocks, tool handles, oars, furniture and 

 miscellaneous woodenv/ares. Excellent for fuel. Occasional curly 

 and bird's-eye logs used for veneering in cabinet work. 



"The maple puts her corals on in May, 

 While loitering frosts about the lowlands cling, 

 To be in tune with what the robins sing, 

 Plastering new log huts 'mid her branches grey; 

 But when the autumn southward turns away. 

 Then in her veins burns most the blood of spring, 

 And every leaf, intensely blossoming, 

 Makes the year's sunset pale the set of day." 



Lowell. 



Who shall know the red maple better than this poet of 

 New England? Yet it must be a sadly belated tree that blooms 

 in May. Her May corals are the dainty keys which swing in 

 graceful clusters from the twigs, each one red as any cock's comb. 



It is fine to watch the spring come on in a region where the 

 red maple grows. Late in March a rosy cloud lies on the wooded 

 marshes and stream borders. Up the hillsides the same colour 

 tells where there is a clump of these trees. The grey branches 

 glow with their "crimson broidery" long before any but the pop- 

 lar trees and pussy willows show their blossoms. 



Go as early as you will to examine these maple flowers, 

 the bees are there before you. Their motive is a selfish one, 

 but while they swing from one bell to another in quest of nectar 

 they dust with pollen the red forked tongues of the fertile flowers. 

 This insures the setting of seed. The reddest flowers are the 

 fertile ones; the sterile ones, fringed with yellow stamens, are 

 orange coloured. The two sorts are isolated on separate branches; 

 often on separate trees. As the leaves appear, the colour deepens. 

 The lengthening bud scales and the opening leaves are deep 

 crimson at first. Then come the ruddy fruits, which set the 

 trees aglow, and which fall in early summer, leaving only the 

 red veins of the leaves to bear the colours of the tree until late 



369 



