XIII. y/CERA CE^ : A CEK. 



85 



leaves. About the end of October, the leaves become either of a clear, or a yel- 

 lowish, red, and then drop off. The flowers appear just before the leaves, near 

 the end of April : they form a short raceme, somewhat corymbose. The fruits, 

 or keys, have their wings yellow. It is not till the tree has attained the age 

 of nearly 40 years that it produces fertile seeds, though it will flower many 

 years before that period. The rate of growth of this species, when once es- 

 tablished, is from 18 in. to 3 ft. long every year, till it attains the height of 20 

 or 30 feet ; which, iu favourable situations, it does in ten years. The wood 

 weighs, when dry, 43 lb. 4 oz. per cubic foot ; is easily worked, takes a fine 

 polish, and absorbs and retains all kinds of colours. It may be used for all 

 tlie various pur[)oses of the wood of the common sycamore. Sugar is made 

 from the sap in Norway, Sweden, and Lithuania. Seeds are ripened in England 

 in abundance. 



It 7. A. saccha'rinum L. The Sugar Maple. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 1496. : Dec. Prod., 1. p. 595. ; Don's Mill., 1. p. 650. : Tor. and Gray, 1. 



p. 248. 

 Synunymes. Rock Maple, Hard Maple, Bird's-eye Maple, Anier. ; Acero del Canada, Ital. 

 Erigranings. Michx. Fl. Arb., 2. 1. 15. ; the plate of this species in Arb. Brit., ist edit., vol. v. ; our 

 fig. 130. ; and^o-. 152. of the leaves, of the natural size, in the plate forming p. 108, 109. 



iV ec. Char., Sfc. Leaves cordate, smooth, glaucous beneath, palmately 

 5-lobed ; lobes acuminated, serrately toothed. Corymbs drooping, on short 

 peduncles. Pedicels pilose. Fruit smooth, with the wings diverging. {Dons 

 Mill.) A deciduous tree. Canada to Georgia. Height in America 50 ft, 

 to 80 ft.; in England 30 ft. to 40 ft. Introduced in 1735. Flowers 

 small, yellowish, and suspended on long, slender, drooping peduncles ; 

 April and May. Keys brown ; ripe in September. Decaying leaves rich 

 yellow. Naked young wood smooth, whitish brown. 



130. jiVer saccharinum. 



Variety 



1 



nigrum Michx 



A. s. 2. nigrum. A. s. /3 nigrum Tor. 4" Gray ; A. 

 the black Sugar Tree, or Rock Maple, Michx. Arb. '2. t. 16 

 Leaves pale green beneath, the veins of the lower surface and |:etioles 

 minutely villous, pubescent ; wings of the fruit a little more diverg- 

 ing. {Tor. and Gray, i. p. 248.) Michaux, who considered this 

 variety a species, says the leaves resemble those of the species in 

 every respect, except that they are of a darker green, and of a thicker 

 texture, and somewhat more bluntly lobed. The tree is indiscri- 

 minately mixed with the common sugar maple, thi'ough extensive 

 ranges of country in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut ; 

 but is readi!} distinguished from it by the smaller size which it at- 

 tains, and the darker colour of its leaves. The soil in which it 

 flourishes best is a rich, strong, sandy loam ; and there it usually 

 grows to the height of 40 or 50 feet. 



Closely resembling A. /;latanoides in foliage, except in being somewhat 



G 3 



