24 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



GENUS ACER, TOURN. 



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

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

 dicecious, usually unsym metrical; 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. 



(The generic name, Acer, is the ancient Latin name of the Maple.) 



152. ACER MACROPHYLLUM, PURSH. 

 OREGON MAPLE, BROAD OR BIG-LEAVED MAPLE, MAPLE. 



Ger., Grossblattriger Ahorn; Fr., Erdble a grandes feuilles; Sp., 



Arce de hoja grande. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves simple, palmately 3-5 sinuate-lobed with nar- 

 row sinuses and the acuminate lobes themselves furnished with 2-4 acute lobes, 

 leaves cordate at base, minutely pubescent at first but finally smooth, coriaceous, 

 lustrous dark-green above, paler beneath, 8-12 inches in width and with long 

 stout petioles; branchlets smooth, green or dark red with small white spots, 

 encircled at base with scars of the bud-scales and marked at the nodes with the 

 scars of the clasping bases of the leaves. Flowers appear after the leaves, poly- 

 gamo-dioecious, bright yellow, fragrant, about one-quarter inch long, in crowed 

 pendulous puberulous terminal racemes 3-6 in. in length, the pedicels often 

 branched and ^-f in. long; sepals pataloid, obovate, slightly larger than the 

 petals; stamens nine or ten, with slender filaments hairy at base and exserted in 

 the sterile flowers, shorter and included in the perfect flowers; pistil with long 

 exserted styles united only at base and ovary pale tomentose. Fruit (maturing 

 in autumn) with seed bearing portion about in. long and densely covered with 

 long pale hairs and the wings (about i in. long) slightly diverging and glabrous 

 with the exception of scattering hairs along the thickened margin. 



(The specific name is the Latin for large leaf.} 



A large handsome tree sometimes 100 ft. (30 m.) in height and 3-5 

 ft. (1 m.) in diameter of trunk, with stout branches forming a com- 

 pact symmetrical head when growing alone. The bark of trunk is of 

 a brownish gray color becoming fissured longitudinally with age and 

 rough with friable scales, very much resembling the bark of A. 

 rubrum in the eastern states. 



HABITAT. This tree ranges along the coast region from Alaska at 

 about latitude 55 north, southward to southern California, being 

 abundant along the slopes of the Cascade and Coast Range, and of the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains. It attains its greatest development in 

 southern Oregon. It prefers moist bottom-lands and the banks of 

 streams, and is rarely found at a greater altitude than 4,000 ft. above 

 sea-level. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. The wood is rather light and soft, close- 

 grained, compact and susceptible of a smooth polish. It is of a reddish 



