THE ASH-LEAVED MAPLE AND THE ASHES. 239 



Where or how the ash-leaved maple 



Ash-leaved Maple l 



or Box Elder. spent the first years of it- existence 



Key undo act n> id, s. nobody knows. The tree call not 

 Acer ney undo. 



account for itself, but that it has 

 puzzled more than one botanist its various name- 

 assuredly testify. Some one lias thought it looked 

 sufficiently like the elder to name it box elder.* 

 Another has seen the strong resemblance of its foli- 

 age to that of the ash, and named it ash-leaved maple : 

 and, finally, Prof. Sargent (following Michaux'e initia- 

 tive) has sifted the qualifying aceroldes down to plain 

 Acer f — a common-sensible conclusion, it seems to 

 me, if one will look at the perfectly plain family 

 signature, the double-winged seed4 " By their fruits 

 ye shall know them." This really ought to be the 

 text of one who is in search of the real character of a 

 tree ; we can tell a great deal about that by the 

 leaves, but when there is a shadow of doubt we must 

 turn to the fruit. The leaf of the ash-leaved maple 

 has three or five slightly rough, strong-ribbed leaflets, 

 the outer edges of which are irregularly and coarsely 



* Michaux says this name was commonly used in the I 'arolinas, 

 so he adopted it also, although it was without any particular .sig- 

 nificance. 



f Which is the name given by the younger Michaux, 

 \ My expressed opinion is, perhaps, presumptuous ; it i*- sim- 

 ply a case of ipse dixit ! Many of the botanists believe that 

 Negundo aceroidesis essentially different from the genua Acer, 



