700 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



base with one or two smaller 3-lobed or rarely elliptic leaves; calyx 5-lobed, hairy, cam- 

 panulate in the staminate flower, much smaller in the pistillate flower and divided to the 

 base into ;> narrow sepals; corolla 0; stamens 4-6, with slender exserted hairy filaments 

 and long linear anthers narrowed and apiculate at apex, in the pistillate flower; ovary 

 on a narrow rudimentary disk, pubescent, only partly inclosed by the calyx; style separat- 

 ing from the base into 2 long stigmatic lobes. Fruit attaining nearly its full size in summer, 

 pendent on glabrous stems 1/-2' long, in graceful racemes 6'-8' in length, ripening in the 

 autumn, deciduous from the stems persistent on the branches until the following spring, 

 l'-2' long, with narrow acute pubescent nutlets diverging at an acute angle and con- 

 stricted below into a stipe-like base, and thin reticulate straight or falcate wings undulate 

 toward the apex; seeds narrowed at the ends, smooth, bright red-brown, ' long. 



Fig. 631 



A tree 50-70 high, with a trunk 2-4 in diameter, dividing near the ground into a 

 number of stout wide-spreading or erect branches, and slender pale green lustrous glabrous 

 branchlets. Winter-buds terminal acute, $' long, rather longer than the obtuse lateral 

 buds, the scales tomentose, those of the inner pairs accrescent, becoming 1' long at ma- 

 turity, deciduous, leaving conspicuous scars visible at the base of the branchlet for two 

 or three years. Bark of the trunk |'-|' thick, pale gray or light brown and deeply divided 

 into broad rounded ridges separating on the surface into short thick scales. Wood light, 

 soft, close-grained, not strong, creamy white, with thick hardly distinguishable sapwood; 

 occasionally manufactured into cheap furniture, and sometimes used for the interior 

 finish of houses, for wooden ware, cooperage, and paper pulp. Small quantities of maple 

 sugar are occasionally made from this tree. 



Distribution. Banks of streams and lakes, and the borders of swamps ; western Vermont, 

 western Massachusetts and Connecticut, central New York and southwestern Ontario, and 

 southward to west-central Florida (Hernando County) and westward to Minnesota, Iowa, 

 Nebraska, Missouri, eastern Kansas, Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, western Louisiana, and 

 eastern and southern Texas to the valley of the lower Rio Blanco. 



Often planted in the United States, especially in the western states and in eastern Canada, 

 and in western and northern Europe, especially the varieties with variegated leaves. 



Passing into the following varieties: 



Var. violaceum Kirch., with slender pale or bluish violet glabrous branchlets covered 

 with a glaucous bloom and rather larger winter-buds. Leaves 3-11, usually 3-7-foliolu- 

 late, the leaflets slightly thicker, lanceolate to oblong-ovate or obovate, often entire or 

 irregularly dentate, occasionally lobed, the terminal leaflet sometimes 3-lobed, usually 

 pubescent and furnished with tufts of axillary hairs on the lower surface. Fruit glabrous, 



