ACERACE^E 



697 



autumn to brilliant shades of scarlet and orange, or clear bright yellow; petioles slender, 

 glabrous or puberulous, red or green, 2'-4' in length. Flowers opening in March and April 

 before the appearance of the leaves, bright scarlet, dull yellowish red or sometimes yellow 

 (var. pallidiflorum Pax.), on long slender pedicels, in few-flowered fascicles on branches of 

 the previous year, from clustered obtuse buds, the staminate and pistillate flowers in separate 

 clusters on the same or on different trees; sepals oblong, obtuse, as long as and broader than 

 the oblong or linear petals; stamens 5-8, scarlet or yellow, with slender filaments exserted 

 in the staminate and included in the pistillate flower; ovary glabrous on a narrow slightly 

 lobed glandular disk; styles slightly united above the base, with long exserted stigmatic 

 lobes. Fruit ripening in the spring or early summer on drooping stems 3'-4' long, scarlet, 

 dark red or brown or yellow, with thin erect wings, convergent at first, divergent at ma- 



Fig. 628 



turity, 2'"!' l n g an d \'~\' wide; seeds dark red, with a rugose coat, j' long, germinating 

 as soon as it falls to the ground. 



A tree, 80-120 high, with a tall trunk 3-4 in diameter, upright branches usually 

 forming a rather narrow head, and branchlets green or dark red w T hen they first appear, be- 

 coming dark or bright red and lustrous at the end of their first summer and marked by 

 numerous longitudinal'white lenticels, and gray faintly tinged with red in their second year. 

 Winter-buds obtuse, \' long, \vith thick dark red outer scales, rounded on the back and 

 ciliate on the margins, and inner scales becoming f'-l' long, narrow-oblong, rounded at 

 apex and bright scarlet. Bark of young stems and of the branches smooth and light gray, 

 becoming on old trunks \'-% thick, dark gray, and divided by longitudinal ridges separat- 

 ing on the surface into large ptate-like scales. Wood very heavy, close-grained, not strong, 

 light brown often slightly tinged with red, w r ith thick rather lighter colored sap wood; used 

 in large quantities in the manufacture of chairs and other furniture, in turnery, for wooden 

 ware and gun-stocks. 



Distribution. Borders of streams, wet swamps, upland forests and rarely on dry rocky 

 hillsides and sand dunes; Newfoundland, southward to southern Florida (banks of the 

 Miami River, Dade County, on the east coast and to Cypress swamps east of Everglade, 

 Lee County, on the west coast) and westward through Quebec to latitude 49 north, and 

 Ontario t<$ the sandy shores of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Brevort, Mackinac 

 County, on Lake Michigan and White Fish Point, Chippewa County, on Lake Superior), 

 western Wisconsin, northwestern Minnesota (Buckeye County), southeastern Iowa 

 (Johnson County), central Oklahoma, and the valley of the Trinity River, Texas; on 

 the mountains of North Carolina to altitudes of 4500; one of the commonest and most 



