ACERACE^E 



631 



Distribution. Banks of streams; coast of British Columbia southward through 

 Washington and Oregon to Mendocino County, California; one of the most abundant 

 of the deciduous-leaved trees of Washington and Oregon up to elevations of 4000 

 above the sea, and of its largest size on the low alluvial soil of bottom-lands, its 

 vine-like stems in such situations springing 4 or 5 together from the ground, spread- 

 ing in wide curves and sending out long slender branches rooting when they touch 

 the ground and forming impenetrable thickets of contorted and interlaced trunks, 

 often many acres in extent; in California smaller and less abundant, growing along 

 streams in the coniferous forest. 



Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in Europe, and in the eastern states, 

 and hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts. 



5. Acer glabrum, Torr. Dwarf Maple. 



Leaves glabrous, membranaceous, rounded in outline, cordate-truncate or wedge- 

 shaped at e the base, 3-5-lobed or often 3-parted or 3-foliolate, with acute or obtuse 

 doubly serrate lobes, 1/-5' in diameter, dark green and lustrous on the upper, paler 



on the lower surface, with conspicuous veinlets ; their petioles stout, grooved, l'-6' 

 long, and often bright red. Flowers about ' in length on short slender pedicels, in 

 loose few-flowered glabrous racemose corymbs, on slender drooping peduncles from 

 the ends of 2-leaved branchlets, the staminate and pistillate usually produced sepa- 

 rately on different plants; sepals oblong, obtuse, petaloid, as long as the greenish 

 yellow petals; stamens 7 or 8, with glabrous unequal filaments shorter than the 

 greenish yellow linear petals, much shorter or rudimentary in the pistillate flower; 

 ovary glabrous, with short obtuse lobes, rudimentary or in the staminate flower; 

 style divided to the base into 2 spreading stigmatic lobes as long as the petals. Fruit 

 glabrous, with broad nearly erect of slightly spreading wings f'-|' long, often rose- 

 colored during the summer; seeds ovate, bright chestnut-brown, about ' long. 



A low tree, occasionally 40 high, with a short trunk 18' in diameter, small upright 

 branches, and slender glabrous branchlets often slightly many-angled, pale greenish 

 brown at first, becoming bright red-brown during their first winter; usually smaller, 

 and more often a shrub 4-5 high. Winter-buds acute, ^' long, with bright red 

 or occasionally yellow scales, those of the inner ranks pale brown tinged with pink, 

 tomentose on the inner surface, becoming 1^' long and narrowly spatulate. Bark 



