ACERACE^: 627 



long-stemmed upright slightly compound pubescent racemes; calyx-lobes narrowly 

 obovate, yellow, pubescent on the outer surface, much shorter than the linear spatu- 

 late pointed yellow petals; stamens 7 or 8, inserted immediately under the ovary, 

 with slender glabrous filaments as long as the petals in the sterile flower, about 

 as long as the sepals in the pistillate flower, and glandular anthers; ovary hoary- 

 tomeutose, reduced to a minute point surrounded by a tuft of pale hairs in the stami- 

 nate flower; style columnar, almost as long as the petals, with short stigmatic lobes. 

 Fruit fully grown and bright red in July, turning brown late in the autumn, almost 

 glabrous, with more or less divergent wings about ^' long; seeds smooth, dark red 

 brown, \' long. 



A bushy tree, occasionally 25-30 high, with a short trunk 6'-8' in diameter, 

 small upright branches, and slender branchlets light gray and pubescent when they 

 first appear, becoming glabrous during the summer, bright red during their first 

 winter, gray or pale brown the following season, and blotched or streaked with 

 green toward the base; more often a tall or low shrub. Winter-buds acute; termi- 

 nal \' long, with bright red outer scales more or less coated with hoary tomentum, 

 those of the inner ranks becoming at maturity 1' or more long and then lanceolate, 

 pale and papery; axillary much smaller and glabrous or puberulous. Bark of the 

 trunk very thin, reddish brown, smooth or slightly furrowed. Wood light, soft, 

 close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Moist rocky hillsides usually in the shade of other trees, and really 

 arborescent only on the western slopes of the high mountains of Tennessee and 

 North Carolina; valley of the lower St. Lawrence River to northern Minnesota and 

 the Saskatchewan, and southward through the northern states and along the Appa- 

 lachian Mountains to northern Georgia. 



Occasionally cultivated as an ornament of parks and gardens in the northern 

 states. 



2. Acer Pennsylvanicum, L. Striped Maple. Moose Wood. 



Leaves rounded or cordate at the base, palmately 3-nerved, 3-lobed at the apex, 

 with short lobes contracted into tapering serrate points, and finely and sharply doubly 

 serrate, when they unfold thin and membranaceous, pale rose color and coated with 

 ferrugineous pubescence, especially on the lower surface and on the petioles, and at 

 maturity glabrous with the exception of tufts of ferrugineous hairs in the axils of 

 the principal nerves on the two surfaces, membranaceous, pale green above, rather 

 paler below, 5'-6' long and 4'-5' wide, turning in the autumn clear light yellow; 

 their petioles stout, grooved, l^'-2' long, with enlarged bases nearly encircling the 

 branch. Flowers bright canary-yellow, opening toward the end of May or early in 

 June when the leaves are nearly fully grown, on slender pedicels '-' long, in slender 

 drooping long-stemmed racemes 4'-6' in length, the staminate and pistillate usu- 

 ally in different racemes on the same plant; sepals linear-lanceolate to obovate, \' 

 long and a little shorter and narrower than the obovate petals; stamens 7-8, shorter 

 than the petals in the staminate flower, rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary 

 purplish brown, glabrous, in the staminate flower reduced to a minute point; style 

 stout, united near the top, with spreading recurved stigmas. Fruit in long drooping 

 racemes, glabrous, with thin spreading wings f ' long, and marked on one side of 

 each nutlet by a small cavity; seeds \' long, dark red-brown, and slightly rugose. 



A tree, 30-40 high, with a short trunk 8'-10' in diameter, small upright 

 branches, and sleuder smooth branchlets pale greenish yellow at first, bright reddish 



