INDIGENOUS TREES AND SHRUBS. 17 



ticularly southward on the Mississippi bluffs. Grows from twenty to thirty 

 feet high. Has "slightly three-lobed and coarsely toothed leaves, downy 

 beneath, and upright dense racemes of small flowers, followed by small 

 fruits with diverging narrow wings." Its beauty is most conspicuous in 

 autumn when its leaves have "various rich shades of red, with seeds yel- 

 lowish," then ripening and ready to fall. Growing naturally on high- 

 lands, delighting in the cold, it must be hardy enough for our prairies, 

 mixed with large trees for wind-breaks. 



sugar maple, A. saccharinum. 



Known also as Hard and Rock Maple. Not indigenous in the western 

 prairie part of the state, but common in our native woods, except near 

 the shore of Lake Superior. "According to Bell," says Prof. Upham, 

 "the northern limit of this tree extends from the lower part of the valley 

 of the Kaministiquia river westward a little to the north of the boundary 

 line to the Lake of the Woods, where it turns south." It is a tree of the 

 north, mostly abounding in the states and Canada between the 43d and 

 49th parallel. It likes to live on the mountain sides, on the crest of hills, 

 in cold, humid valleys, but everywhere demands fertile soil, Will attain 

 seventy to eighty feet and proportional diameter. Its bark is grayish 

 white. 



Leaves about five inches broad, varying in length according to age and 

 vigor. They are attached opposite each other on long stalks, palmated 

 (like the hand with outstretched fingers), five-lobed, bright green above, 

 whitish underneath. The first touches of autumnal frost turns them red. 

 "Calyx bell-shaped and hairy-fringed." Oray. "Flowers small, yellowish, 

 suspended by slender, drooping peduncles. Seeds contained in two cap- 

 sules united at the base and terminated by a membranous wing " Mich- 

 aux. Seeds ripen in October, but mature only once in two or three years. 



When first cut, the wood is white, but when long exposed to the light 

 assumes a rosy tinge. Grain is close and fine; silken-lustered; strong and 

 heavy; is not durable as the oak; quickly decays in moisture. It makes 

 good axle trees, wheel-spokes, sled runners, chairs, desks, etc. 



bird's-eye maple. 



This also is the Hard or Sugar Maple not common. Its undulations are 

 like those of the Curly Maple; has spots "bird's eyes" about half a line 

 in diameter; sometimes contiguous and then apart. Very much esteemed 

 by cabinet makers. The more numerous the spots, the more beautiful and 

 valuable is the wood. 



TAPPING TO DEATH. 



The treatment the sugar maples are receiving from resident whites and 

 Indians is unpardonable. Having ax-stabbed them for sugar for the last 

 quarter of a century, the large trees are rotting out, and such may as well 

 be used for fuel, But spare the young growth by keeping out the fires and 

 imprisoning the men and boys who cut them for camp fires. 



The Sugar Maple resists the wind well. It can be raised on the prairie 

 from seed planting, especially when amply protected by the ash, willow, 



