ACERACE.E 687 



first winter, and at the end of two or three years striped like the trunk with broad pale 

 lines; or often much smaller and shrubby in habit. Winter-buds: the terminal conspicu- 

 ously stipitate, sometimes almost \' long, much longer than the axillary buds, covered by 

 two thick bright red spatulate boat-shaped scales prominently keeled on the back, the 

 inner scales green and foliaceous, becoming l|'-2' long, \' wide, pubescent, and bright yel- 

 low or rose color. Bark of the trunk \'-% thick, reddish brown, marked longitudinally by 

 broad pale stripes, and roughened by many oblong horizontal excrescences. Wood light, 

 soft, close-grained, light brown, with thick lighter colored sap wood of 30-40 layers of annual 

 growth. 



Distribution. Usually in the shade of other trees, often forming in northern New 

 England a large part of their shrubby undergrowth; shores of Ha-Ha Bay, Quebec, west- 

 ward along the shores of Lake Ontario and the islands of Lake Huron to northern Wiscon- 

 sin, and southward through the Atlantic states and along the Appalachian Mountains to 

 northern Georgia; ascending to altitudes of 5000; common in the north Atlantic states, 

 especially in the interior and elevated regions; of its largest size on the slopes of the Big 

 Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, and of the Blue Ridge in North and South Carolina. 



Sometimes cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and occasionally in 

 Europe. 



5. Acer macrophyllum Pursh. Broad-leaved Maple. 



Leaves more or less cordate at the broad base, deeply 5-lobed by narrow sinuses acute in 

 the bottom, the lobes acute or acuminate, the terminal lobe often 3-lobed, the others usually 

 furnished with small lateral lobules, the lower lobes much smaller than the others, promi- 



Fig. 619 







nently 3-5-nerved, puberulous when they unfold, especially on the upper surface along 

 the principal veins, and at maturity subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper 

 surface, pale on the lower surface, 8'-12' in diameter; turning in the autumn bright orange 

 oolor before falling; petioles stout, 10'-12' in length, with enlarged bases united and encir- 

 cling the stem and often furnished on the inside with small tufts of white hairs. Flowers 

 bright yellow, fragrant, \' long, on slender pubescent often branched pedicels '-f ' in length, 

 the staminate and pistillate together in graceful pendulous slightly puberulous racemes 

 4 '-6' long, appearing in April and May after the leaves are fully grown; sepals petaloid, obo- 

 vate, obtuse and a little longer and broader than the spatulate petals; stamens 9-10, with 

 long slender filaments hairy at base, exserted in the staminate flower and included in the 

 pistillate flower, and orange-colored anthers; ovary hoary-tomentose, reduced in the stam- 

 inate flower to a minute point; styles united at base only; stigmas long and exserted. Fruit 



