THE MAPLE. 109 



day. When first the maple begins to auturanize 

 the grove, the extremities of the boughs alone 

 change their colour, but all the internal and more 

 sheltered parts still retain their verdure, which gives 

 to the tree the effect of a great depth of shade, and 

 displays advantageously the light, lively colouring 

 of the sprays. We find the maple useful in our 

 hedges, not from the opposition it affords, but by 

 reason of its very quick growth from the stool after 

 it has been cut, whence it makes a fence in a 

 shorter time than most of its companions; and 

 when firewood is an object, it soon becomes suffi- 

 ciently large for this purpose. The singular rug- 

 gedness of the branches and shoots when they 

 have attained a year's growth, and the depth of 

 the furrows, give it a strongly marked character 

 among our shrubs. 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 

 corklike bark presents the figure of a star with five 

 or more rays, sometimes irregularly, but generally 

 exactly defined. A thin slice from this surface 

 (see Plate 3. Fig. 1.) is a beautiful and curious 

 object in the microscope, exhibiting the different 

 channels, and variously formed tubes, through 



