ACERACEJK 691 



broad sinus and forming its base, when they unfold glabrous and purplish above, loosely 

 hairy below, soon glabrous, and at maturity dark yellow-green and lustrous on the upper 

 surface, pale, reticulate-venulose and glabrous except in the axils of the principal veins on 

 the lower surface. 3-o-nerved, usually not more than If long, occasionally up to 2f ' long 

 and 3' wide; petioles slender, glabrous, f -If in length. Flowers appearing with the leaves, 

 on slender glabrous pedicels, f-li' long, in 3-8-flowered nearly sessile corymbs; calyx broad- 

 campanulate or cupulate, with short semiorbicular lobes ciliate on the margins; petals 0; 

 stamens usually 6, with slender filaments longer than the calyx of the staminate flower; style 

 divided to below the middle, with two spreading stigmas. Fruit glabrous, with long and 

 broad almost horizontally spreading nutlets, convex, smooth, pale yellow-brown, the wing 

 curved upward. 



A tree, rarely more than 20 high with a short trunk 8'-10' in diameter, small branches 

 forming an open irregular head, and slender glabrous branchlets light green above when 

 they first appear, becoming pale red-brown and marked by pale lenticels during their first 

 season and ultimately dull gray-brown. Bark of the trunk smooth, pale gray. Winter- 

 buds small, obtuse, covered with dark brown scales, those of the inner ranks accrescent, 

 linear-oblong, scarlet or pink, up to \\' in length when fully grown. 



Distribution. Edwards Plateau of western Texas, banks and bluffs of Cibelo Creek, 

 near Boerne, Kendall County, on the rocky banks of upper Saco Creek, Bandera County, 

 and at the base of a high limestone bluff near Utopia, TJvalde County; rare and local. 



7. Acer floridanum Pax. Sugar Maple. 



Leaves rounded, truncate or slightly cordate at the broad base, 3-5-lobed, with short obtuse 

 or acute entire or lobulate lobes, when they unfold sparingly hairy on the upper surface 

 and hoary-tomentose on the lower surface, and at maturity thin, dark green and lustrous 



Fig. 623 



above, pale or glaucescent and pubescent below, If -3' in diameter, and prominently 

 3-5-nerved, with stout spreading lateral veins and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; turning 

 yellow and scarlet in the autumn before falling; petioles slender, glabrous, or pubescent 

 generally becoming glabrous, lf-3' in length, with an enlarged base nearly encircling the 

 branchlet. Flowers appearing with the leaves on slender elongated sparingly hairy ul- 

 timately glabrous or villose-tomentose (var. villipes Rehd.) pedicels, in many-flowered 

 drooping nearly sessile corymbs; calyx campanulate, yellow, about f long, persistent under 

 the fruit, the short lobes ciliate on the margins with long pale hairs; corolla 0. Fruit green, 



