48 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



tion. A fixed oil from the kernels, extracted by means of ether, has 

 been used in France as a topical remedy in rheumatism." * 



GENUS ACER, TOURN. 



Leaves opposite, simple, palinately-veined, 5- or occasionally 3-lobed; stipules 

 none. Flowers small, in axillary racemes or corymbs, regular, polygamo-dioecious, 

 usually unsymmetrical ; pedicels not jointed; sepals 5 (or 4-9), more or less united, 

 colored; petals sometimes wanting, but, when present, 5 (or 4-9), equal and furnished 

 with short claws; stamens, commonly 8; ovary 2-lobed, formed of 2 united carpels, 

 each bearing 2 ovules, only one of which commonly attains maturity; styles 2, long 

 and slender, united only below and stigmatic down the inside. Fruit a double 

 samara, finally separating when mature and ready to fall, the wings strengthened 

 by a rib along one margin; cotyledons, long and thin. 



(Ancient Latin name of the Maple.) 



7. ACER SACCHARINUM, WANG. 



SUGAR MAPLE, HARD MAPLE, ROCK MAPLE, SUGAR-TREE. 

 Ger., Zuker Aliorn\ Fr., Erable d sucre; Sp., Acer de azucar. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves more or less cordate at the base; 3-5-lobed with 

 rounded sinuses and pointed remotely sinuate-toothed lobes; rather pale and glau- 

 cous, or slightly downy on the veins beneath. Flowers in handsome pendulous 

 umbellate-corymbs, with long thread-like hairy pedicels, greenish-yellow and 

 appearing with the leaves; calyx hairy at the apex*; petals none. Wings of the fruit 

 only slightly diverging. A variety known as var. nigrum, the Black Maple (con- 

 sidered by some as a distinct species, A. nigrum), is characterized by having leaves 

 with closed sinuses, divaricate lobes and rather paler, usually slightly pubescent 

 under surface; wings of the fruit more diverging. 



(Saccharinum is Latin for "sugar.") 



This tree when growing in the forest sometimes attains a height of 

 100 ft. (30 m.) or more, with a trunk perhaps 50 ft. (15 m.) long and 4 

 ft. (1.22 m.) in diameter at the base. In such situations the tops are 

 usually unsymmetrical and the trunks often more or less crooked and 

 leaning. Growing in the open it has a very different appearance. The 

 tops are there very large and developed with great symmetry and density 

 of foliage, more or less ovoid in outline and with short, thick and 

 straight trunks. 



HABITAT. Canada westward as far as the shores of Lake Superior, 

 and reaching its northern-most limit along the coast. North-eastern 

 United States, westward to the Mississippi, and southward along the 

 mountains to western North Carolina, in calcareous and loamy soil, often 

 being the principal if not the exclusive timber of tracts of forest. In 

 the Adirondack forests we have noticed this tree particularly, and there 

 find it in its greatest vigor of development. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very hard hence the name "Hard 

 Maple " heavy, close-grained, compact and strong. The most perfectly 



*U. S. Dispensatory, 15th ed., pp. 1561-2. 



