BOX ELDER 



(Acer Negundo) 



ATTEMPTS to ascertain the meaning of the word negundo which 

 botanists apply to this species have not been crowned with entire 

 success. It is known to be a word in the Malay alam language of the 

 Malabar coast of India, and is there applied to a tree, apparently refer- 

 ring to a peculiar form of leaf. The name was transferred to the box 

 elder by Moench, and has been generally adopted by botanists, although 

 at least seven other scientific names have been given the tree. It bears 

 ten or more English names in different regions. Among these names are 

 ash-leaved maple, known from Massachusetts to Montana and Texas; 

 cut-leaved maple in Colorado; three-leaved maple in Pennsylvania; 

 black ash in Tennessee; stinking ash in South Carolina; sugar ash in 

 Florida; water ash in the Dakotas; and box elder wherever it grows. 



The tree's geographical range does not fall much short of 3,000,000 

 square miles, and is equalled by few species of this country. It extends 

 from New England across Canada to Alberta, thence to Arizona, and 

 includes practically all the United States east and south of those lines. 

 It thrives in hot and cold climates, and high and low elevations; in regions 

 of much rain, and in those with little. That fact has been turned to 

 account by tree planters, particularly in the years when the western 

 plains were being settled by homesteaders. The box elder was the 

 chief tree on many a timber claim where the letter of the law rather than 

 the spirit was carried out. It afforded the earliest protection against 

 scorching summer sun and the keen winds of winter about many a 

 frontiersman's cabin on the plains. It was the earliest street tree in 

 many western towns. The people planted it because they knew it 

 would grow, and they were not so sure of a good many other trees. 

 Green ash was often its companion in pioneer plantings on the plains. 

 Many towns which set box elders along the streets when they did not 

 know of anything better, still have the trees, though they would willingly 

 exchange them for something else. They are not ideal street and park 

 trees; do not produce shapely trunks and crowns; and drop leaves all 

 summer and seeds all winter. The tree is reputed to be short lived, yet 

 some of those planted a generation or two ago show no symptoms of 

 decline. 



There is no good reason why this tree should be called an elder, 

 or an ash, except that its leaves are compound. If that is a reason, it 

 might be called a hickory or a walnut, since they bear compound leaves. 

 It is clearly a maple. Its fruit shows it to be so, and Indians of the far 



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