RED MAPLE 



(Acer Rubruni) 



THIS tree's names describe it. Some refer to color of leaves, flowers, 

 and fruit, others to situation where it grows best. It is known as 

 red inaple and swamp maple ; also as water maple, white maple, scarlet 

 maple, and shoepeg maple. New York Indianas called it ah-we-hot- 

 kwah, which meant red flower. Most trees looked alike to Indians, and 

 when they gave a name, it was descriptive. 



The redness of this maple is so marked that it cannot escape notice. 

 The flowers, fruit, twigs, and leaves all possess the property at one time 

 or another during the season. The flower comes before the leaf, during 

 the first warm days of spring. That is pretty early in the South, and 

 later in the North. The flowers are bright scarlet, and very conspicuous, 

 growing in umbel-like, drooping clusters. The staminate and pistillate 

 ones frequently grow on different trees, and always in separate clusters. 



The fruit ripens quickly, and is sometimes almost mature before 

 the haves appear. The date of ripening depends upon latitude. The 

 tree's range north and south exceeds a thousand miles and that makes 

 much difference in climate. In the South the fruit outstrips the leaves 

 and has about reached maturity before the unfolding leaves are large 

 enough to hide it ; but in New England and New York the leaves are large 

 before the fruit is mature. The seed is the characteristic maple key, 

 with a wing to carry it. The fruit and by that term the seed with its 

 attached wing is meant is bright red, and a tree loaded with the vivid 

 clusters is a beautiful spectacle. Two seeds are generally fast together, 

 and they make surprising flights in that condition, passing with whirling 

 motion through the air. Gravity spins them, but wind carries them for- 

 ward, and the random of their flight depends on the strength of the wind, 

 which happens to be blowing when they sever their connection with the 

 tree. 



The seeds germinate quickly when they light on damp soil. If 

 they do not find such situations, they soon perish ; because they do not 

 retain their vitality long. By the middle of summer the young trees 

 have several leaves, and from that time on the struggle is mainly among 

 themselves for space and moisture, because they stand so thick that it is 

 a survival of the fittest. 



The young twigs are generally red in spring, but they do not present 

 as conspicuous a mass as the flowers and fruit do. The leaves are simple, 

 with long reddish petioles. They have three or five lobes, the lower pair 

 often entirely missing, and small if present. Each lobe has a pointed 



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