7. ACER SACCHARINUM SUGAR MAPLE. 51 



face gives to a surface covered with blisters. Some call it "Landscape " 

 Maple from the suggestions seen in it of a mountainous landscape, as 

 imagined from some great height. The name is certainly very applicable 

 to some specimens, as the fancied representation of mountain ranges, 

 isolated peaks and deep valleys is very complete. A purely blister 

 figure is the rarest of the three varieties above mentioned. One might 

 have to examine many hundreds of trees before finding one nicely blis- 

 tered. The one used for the accompanying sections was the best one 

 found in the examination of actually thousands of trees such is the 

 rarity of a purely blister figure. Trees are more often found where it is 

 combined with the bird's-eye and curly figures. 



The trunk of a Blister Maple tree usually seems massive for the size of 

 the top. Upon striking off a piece of the bark, the surface of the wood 

 is found to be covered with wart-like eminences quite like the surface of 

 a rough, warty squash. The inside surface of the bark is pitted to cor- 

 respond with the prominences of the wood. The figure is best near the 

 bark, growing poorer as we approach the heart; and, to show it to best 

 advantage, the log is cut into veneering by means of a huge lathe, 

 which turns off a great shaving the length of the log, and round and 

 round it until the heart is reached, or as long as the figure lasts. This 

 gives the tangential view of the grain, as shown in the sections. The 

 transverse and radial views are rarely if ever seen in the commercial 

 veneering, but are interesting here as showing, from all sides so to speak, 

 the peculiar formation of the figure. 



The BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE, or BIRD'S-EYE FIGURE OF THE HARD MAPLE, 

 is so called from the appearance of birds' eyes, which, in a certain aspect, 

 its polished surface presents. It is more common than the distinctly 

 blister figure, and much that we see has the latter combined with it. 

 It is rarely if ever found, so far as our experience goes, in the Soft- 

 Maples. In the tree a bird's-eye figure may be detected by characteristic 

 pits in the bark, but they are usually inconspicuous. The top of the 

 tree often seems small and rather scraggy for the size of the trunk. On 

 removal of the bark the wood is found to be deeply pitted instead of 

 warty, as in the Blister Maple and in the bark are projections, or little 

 nibs, corresponding with the pits in the wood. On examination of a 

 transverse section of the wood,- we find that these pits are shown in the 

 grain nearly to the center of the tree, and present the appearance of so 

 many pins pointing in toward the center from the bark. Hence the 

 name, "Pin " Maple, which is sometimes applied to this form. The 

 "pins," when cut across i. e., in a section tangential to the grain 

 as seen in most of the veneering, present the "eyes," as they are called 

 from something of a resemblance to birds' eyes. 



