80 THE MAPLE. 



The under side of the leaves in autumn, when they 

 become yellow, and dashed here and there with a few 

 specks of red and brown, appear, when magnified, like 

 a very beautiful and perfect mosaic pavement, with all 

 its tesserae arranged and fitted. If one of these rugged 

 young shoots be cut through horizontally with a sharp 

 knife, its cork-like bark presents the figure of a star 

 with five or more rays, sometimes irregularly, but gene- 

 rally exactly defined. A thin slice from the surface is a 

 beautiful and curious object in the microscope, exhibit- 

 ing the different channels, and variously formed tubes, 

 through which the sap flows, and the air circulates for 

 the supply of all the diversified requirements of the 

 plant ; and it is good and delightful to contemplate the 

 wonderful mechanism that has been devised by the 

 Almighty Architect, for the sustenance and particular 

 necessities of the simple maple, this " ditch trumpery," 

 as Gilpin calls it ; which naturally leads one to consider 

 that, if he have so regarded such humble objects, how 

 much more has he accounted worthy of his beneficence 

 the more highly destined orders of his creation ! As 

 Evelyn says, on another occasion, "I beg no pardon 

 for this application, but deplore my no better use of 

 it." Modern practice records no medicinal virtues to 

 be derived from the maple; but Pliny, in the quaint 

 language of old Philemon Holland, tells us that a cata- 

 plasm made from the roots of this tree is " singular to 

 be applied for the griefs of the liver, and worketh 

 mightily." In summer the leaves of the hedge-row 

 maple often assume a whitish, mouldy look, which ap- 

 pears to be a mere exudation, as it neither presents any 

 after-character, nor have I observed that any thing 

 results from it. v The young leaves, soon after their ap- 

 pearance in the spring, are beset with numerous fine 

 spines of a bright red color, most probably occasioned 

 by the puncture of some insect, though I have never 

 been able to discover any of the larvae inclosed in them. 

 Some insects wound the leaves and sprays of plants for 

 nutriment, though generally the object seems to be the 

 formation of a nidus for their young, by the fluid that 

 issues from the wound : but insects do something more 



