356 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



myer's field and by Busart's, etc. Our only native vine that fre- 

 quently strangles trees to death. One occasionally finds various 

 forest trees that have grown over the strangler forming a screw- 

 shaped crease, and apparently strangling the vine. These vines 

 rather rarely twist about each other forming vegetable ropes (a 

 habit rather common with the Dutchman's pipe farther south) . On 

 the depot grounds is an umbrella-shaped trellis grown over by this 

 vine, and this shows how admirably it can be used as an orna- 

 mental plant if used rightly. The leaves remain a bright green 

 until most other leaves are gone, then they turn to a pale lemon 

 yellow and drop. 



Family 92. Staphyleace^e. Bladder-nut Family 

 499. american bladder-nut 



STAPHYLEA TRIFOLIA L. 



Not common ; a few shrubs in woods near Busart's field, near a 

 woodland pond. The bushes were tall and handsome. Well worthy 

 of cultivation, especially in parks, more attractive than the Euro- 

 pean species one often finds in parks ; the flowers are not so showy, 

 but are more graceful, and are succeeded by the bladdery pods 

 which remain well through the winter and give the plant an orna- 

 mental value when nearly everything else is barren. The hard, 

 globose seeds which loosen from the pod easily after ripening make 

 a very effective rattle. There is a good deal of variation in the 

 shape and hue of the pods. They are sometimes elongate with 

 three long apices, and sometimes short and globose. They are 

 usually green, turning brown at maturity, but a bush near Ply- 

 mouth had pink roundish bladders, and some in Tennessee had a 

 black mixed in with pale green in such a manner as to give the 

 appearance of high-lights and shadows, with a highly decorative 

 effect. 



Family 93. Acerace^e. Maple Family 



500. SILVER MAPLE; WHITE OR SOFT MAPLE 



ACER SACCHARINUM L. 



Scattered in low places; on the depot grounds, in the swamp 

 between Farrar's and Overmyer's. Most of the trees in the vicin- 

 ity of the lake are of only small or moderate size ; along the Tippe- 

 canoe River about four miles away, some of the trees are immense. 

 One of the first of our plants to flower, running a close second to 

 skunk cabbage and harbinger-of-spring ; trees in the streets of large 

 cities blossom earlier than those in forests, perhaps on account of 



