202 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



est and best flavor ; but in the market the super- 

 refined, lighter-colored sugar made by the patent 

 evaporators is of course considered much finer, and 

 brings a higher price. The best sugar brings the 

 New Hampshire farmer rarely more than eight cents 

 per pound, and the sirup about sixty cents per gal- 

 lon. The retail prices even in country towns is 

 frequently over fifty per cent in advance of these 

 figures. 



Black Sugar Maple. The ^lack su g ar maple is a variety 

 Acer saccharinum, of the common sugar maple, with 



var. niarum. ■,. ,. . -, . -■.«. 



Acerbarbatum, n0 g reat distinguishing differences 



var. nigrum, excepting that the leaf is often fine- 

 ly covered with down un- 

 derneath ; it usually has 

 three lobes (leaf divi- 

 sions) which are wider, 

 shorter, and freer of 

 teeth, and the 

 sides of the 

 clefts at 

 the base 

 of the leaf often 

 Black sugar Maple. ~ overlap. The bark 



of the tree has also a blackish color, and the seed 

 wings, set wide apart, only slightly diverge. 



