650 



The Maples 



yellow flowers appear with the leaves, or a few days before them, in clusters at 

 and near the ends of twigs of the preceding season; they are long-stalked and 

 drooping, the tree being conspicuous when in bloom; the staminate and pistillate 

 flowers are in separate clusters; the pedicels and 5-Iobed calyx are provided with 

 long hairs ; there are no petals ; the staminate flowers have about 7 stamens twice 

 as long as the calyx; in the pistillate flowers the stamens are only about as long 

 as the calyx and the oxsLvy is sHghtly hair)\ The samaras vary from 3 to 4 cm. 

 in length, the seed-bearing part about i cm. long and strongly reticulated, the 

 parallel or shghtly divergent wings 1.3 cm. wide or less. 



This tree and the closely related Black maple are the principal sources of 

 maple sugar. The wood has a specific gravity of about 0.7c, is light reddish brown, 

 and more valuable than that of any other maple, being used in large amounts for 

 furniture, flooring, decorative work, tool-handles, shoe-pegs, and in ship-building; 

 birdseye and curled maple, so much prized for cabinet work, are this wood with 

 an irregular or twisted grain. The tree is of rather slow growth, but otherwise 

 very desirable for road and park planting. Its foliage turns from yellow to orange 

 or scarlet in the early autumn and is a striking feature of the forests at that time 

 of year. 



Rugel's maple (Acer Rugelii Pax) is a form of the Sugar maple with small 

 leaves, the lobes of which are usually without teeth; it occurs from Georgia and 

 North CaroHna through Tennessee to Missouri, and locally further north; it does 

 not seem to be a distinct species. 



The Norway Maple, Acer platanoides Linnaeus, a tree of northern Europe, much planted 

 as a favorite shade tree and attaining a height of 30 meters is occasionally spontaneous about 

 cities and towns. Its usually 5-lobed leaves are sharp or taper-pointed and coarsely sharp- 

 toothed, deeply heart-shaped at the base, 9 to 15 cm. broad, 

 dull green and smooth above, light green, smooth and 

 prominently thin veined beneath, these exuding a milky juice 

 on being punctured. The flowers which appear in June 

 are yellowish green, in pendulous corymbs, the broad wings 

 of the fruit spreading at right angles. The foliage turns a 

 bright yellow in autumn. 



14. BLACK MAPLE Acer nigrum 

 F. A. Michaux. 



This tree has often been regarded as a variety of 

 the Sugar maple, but recent studies by many bota- 

 nists indicate that it is specifically distinct. Like its 

 relative, it is an upland species, and is known to 

 grow naturally from Quebec to Georgia, South 

 Dakota, Kansas, and Louisiana; within this area it 

 locally entirely replaces the Sugar maple, while in 

 other locahties it is not known to exist, its distribution being pecuhar in this re- 



FiG. 602. Black Maple. 



