ACER. 



189 



in almost every landscape. It is a handsome tree, cheering the 

 beholder with its aspect of life and energy. When assembled 

 in forests, they grow to the height of 80 or 90 feet, with a 

 trunk 4 or 5 feet in diameter, entire two-thirds of its height.* 

 In open situations, or in planted parks and rows, it stands 

 40 to 50 feet high, with a 

 trunk one-third this height 

 supporting a broad pyra- 

 midal leafy crown. But the 

 aged trees assume a great 

 variety of forms, picturesque 

 or beautiful, wh'ich the artist 

 is never weary of studying. 



Analysis. The ffiools 

 are often above ground, espe- 

 cially on the rocks they love, 

 diverging many feet from 

 the base, massive and strong, 

 finally dissolving and de- 

 scending deep. A cross-sec- 

 tion of one will show the 

 wood in annual layers inclosed in bark, but destitute of pith. 



The Stem, or trunk, in young trees is straight, erect, 

 cylindrical, with bark slightly furrowed, gray, clouded with 

 umber. With age it becomes shaggy with long, deep fur- 

 rows in the bark, and angular with woody ridges from the 

 main roots upward, and often bent and gnarly. The wood 

 is hard, compact, pearly white, with a satin-like luster. 

 Under a strong magnifier it appears as in the cut (5), 

 showing clearly the three kinds of tissue of which it is 

 composed. 



5, a shaving of the wood of Maple 

 greatly magnified ; a, the silver grain 

 or medullary rays ; 6, spiral tubes con- 

 veying air or water ; c, the proper wood- 

 cells. 



* A tree in Blandford, Mass., 4 feet through at base, and 108 feet high, yielded 

 seven and a half cords of wood. Emerson's Report, 



