TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



201 



species by its almost black bark and the formation of its leaves, 

 which is, however, very variable. Usually the lobes are severely 

 cut and have few or no teeth. The sinuses are long and nar- 

 row, and on both sides the leaf is of the same colour. Even 

 when old it retains a soft down underneath. When tne base of 

 the leaf is heart-shaped the lobes not infrequently overlap 

 each other. Of the samaras, the wings are rather wide, but 

 hardly more so at the bottom than at the top. From the sap 

 of this tree also sugar is made. 



STRIPED MAPLE. GOOSEFOOT MAPLE. MOOSEWOOD. 



{Plate CV.) 

 Acer Pennsylvdnicum. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Maple. Slender; branches^ 10-35 feet. Nova Scotia -westward, May, June, 



upright. southward to Georgia 



and Tennessee. 



Bark: reddish brown or greenish ; conspicuously striped longitudinally with 

 lines of pale blue; smooth, and having upon it rough excrescences. Leaves: 

 large ; simple ; opposite ; with stout, grooved petioles ; rounded or cordate, with 

 three lobes above the middle ; sinuses pointed ; finely and doubly serrate. Glab- 

 rous above and below, slightly pubescent when young. Flowers ; yellowish 



the 

 iters 

 Samaras: pale green, with widely diverging wings ; glabrous. 



leaves 



green; growing in terminal, drooping racemes and appearing after 



have unfolded. The sterile and fertile flowers grow in different clusters on the 



same tree. 



Dame Nature was surely in one of her jocund moods when 

 she gave so many fine little touches to the 

 striped maple. The bud-scales are very 

 attractive, and as the leaves unfold in the 

 springtime they cover the tree with a burst 

 of faint rose colour. Its racemes of delicate 

 flowers sway in the tree like tassels. The 

 brilliancy of its green garb and the gay 

 yellow tint to which it turns in the autumn, 

 make it one of the most beautiful trees in 

 cultivation. In outline its leaf has been 

 thought to suggest a goose's foot from the 

 way in which it widens towards the summit and divides into 



Acer Pennsylvdnicum. 



