688 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



fully grown by the 1st of July and ripening late in the autumn; nutlets covered with long 

 pale hairs, their wings l' long, \' wide, slightly divergent and glabrous with the exception 

 of a few hairs on the thickened edge; seeds dark-colored, rugose and pitted, \' long. 



A tree, 80-100 high, with a tall straight trunk 2-3 in diameter, stout often pendulous 

 branches forming a compact handsome head, and stout branchlets smooth and pale green 

 at first, becoming bright green or dark red in their first winter, covered more or less thickly 

 with small longitudinal white lenticels, and in their second summer gray or grayish brown. 

 Winter-buds obtuse; terminal \' long, with short broad slightly spreading dark red ciliate 

 outer scales rounded on the back, those of the inner ranks green and foliaceous, and at 

 maturity \\' long, colored and puberulous; axillary buds minute. Bark of the trunk |'-f ' 

 thick, brown faintly tinged with red or bright reddish brown, deeply furrowed and broken 

 on the surface into small square plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close- 

 grained, rich brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored often nearly white sapwood 

 of 60-80 layers of annual growth; more valuable than the wood produced by other decidu- 

 ous-leaved trees of western North America, and in Washington and Oregon used in the 

 interior finish of buildings, for furniture, and for axe and broom-handles. 



Distribution. Banks of streams or on rich bottom-lands or the rocky slopes of mountain 

 valleys; coast of Alaska south of latitude 55 north, southward along the islands and coast 

 of British Columbia, through Washington and Oregon west of the Cascade Mountains, 

 and southward along the coast ranges and the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the 

 San Bernardino Mountains, and to Hot Spring Valley, San Diego County, California; on 

 the Sierra Nevada usually between altitudes of 2000 and 5000 and on the southern moun- 

 tains rarely above 3000; most abundant and of its largest size in the humid climate and 

 rich soil of the bottom-lands of southwestern Oregon, forming extensive forests; in Cali- 

 fornia usually much smaller, especially on the coast ranges. 



Generally planted in the Pacific States for shade and as a street tree, and occasionally 

 in the Eastern States as far north as Long Island, New York, and in western Europe; not 

 hardy in Massachusetts. 



6. Acer saccharum Marsh. Sugar Maple. Rock Maple. 



Leaves rarely in whorls of 3, heart-shaped by a broad sinus, truncate or sometimes 

 cuneate at base, 3-5-lobed, the lobes usually acute sparingly sinuate-toothed usually 

 3-lobulate at apex, with 3-5 conspicuous nerves, and reticulate veinlets, when they un- 

 fold coated below with pale pubescence, glabrous or more or less pubescent on the nerves 

 below (var. Schneckii Rehd.) and at maturity, 4'-5' in diameter, often rather coriaceous, 

 dark green and opaque on the upper surface, green or pale (var. glabrum Sarg.) on the lower 

 surface; turning in the autumn brilliant shades of deep red, scarlet and orange or clear yel- 

 low ; petioles slender, glabrous, H'-3' in length. Flowers appearing with the leaves on slen- 

 der more or less hairy pedicels f '-3' long, in nearly sessile umbel-like corymbs from terminal 

 leaf-buds and lateral leafless buds, the staminate and pistillate in the same or in separate 

 clusters on the same or on different trees; calyx broad-campanulate, o-lobed by the partial 

 union of the obtuse sepals, greenish yellow, hairy on the outer surface; corolla 0; stamens 

 7-8, w r ith slender glabrous xfilaments tw 7 ice as long as the calyx in the staminate flower 

 and much shorter in the pistillate flower; ovary obtusely lobed, pale green, covered with long 

 scattered hairs, in the staminate flower reduced to a minute point; styles united at base 

 only, with 2 long exserted stigmatic lobes. Fruit ripening in the autumn, glabrous, with 

 broad thin and usually divergent wings ^'-1'long; seeds smooth, bright red-brown, \' long. 



A tree, 100-120 high, with a trunk often 3-4 in diameter, rising sometimes in the 

 forest to the height of 60-70 without branches, or in open situations developing 8-10 

 from the ground stout upright branches forming while the tree is young a narrow egg-shaped 

 head, ultimately spreading into a broad round-topped dome often 70-80 across, and 

 slender glabrous branchlets green at first, becoming reddish brown by the end of their first 

 season, lustrous, marked by numerous large pale oblong lenticels, and in their second 

 winter pale brown tinged with red. Winter-buds acute, \' long, with purple slightly puber- 



